Life is Strange: Forces of Nature
by Scribble01
Summary: She tried so hard. It didn't work. Now, she saved Rachel and lost Chloe, only having her Rewind and nightmares as company. The reality she created is normal- or is it? Things behind the curtain are revealing themselves and powers are being handed out like candy. People are dying. And Max, Rachel, and Chloe are the only ones who can stop it. But can they? AmberPriceField.
1. Episode One: Tachypsychia

(A/N: Life is Strange is by far one of my favorite- if not the most favorite- game I've ever had the pleasure of playing. I recently replayed it, given the hype of Before the Storm coming out, and I fell even deeper in love with it than I already was. So, I was all like, 'Why not fall deeper down the fandom hole?' and decided to create this beauty. With a face only a mother could love. It's AmberPriceField so that should give y'all some inkling of what's going to happen. I tried to make it original but I really don't know if I did since their aren't that many LiS Fanfics around. Review in the comments or give me a star if you like it. It'd be nice to know that I do this for someone else too, not just me.)

Part One: Rachel Amber

Blood rushed down Max's lip from her nose as she stared and stared at the picture. Even though the Polaroid was ripped, she could still hear the voices and the sounds of that day in her head. Reverberating around in her skull like the slow bass of a band. The blue butterfly was mostly whole but the picture was torn down the middle.

The funeral had been painful for her. As if she was being stabbed over and over again in the heart. She had loved Chloe. More than a best friend. And she knew that Chloe loved her in the end. They had kissed before Max had sacrificed her for Arcadia. They had actually kissed...

She had torn the picture the moment she entered the bathroom, making sure that she could never go back to that moment. No matter how much she wanted to. Like now. Even taped, the Polaroid was beyond able to be focused. There was no way Max could go back and she was just torturing herself trying to. Both physically and mentally.

Her head was throbbing for trying for the last fifteen minutes and her soul and heart ached when she kept hearing the gun shot, her own sobbing, and Chloe's strangled last breaths as the blood in her body pooled out of her stomach and onto the floor.

It was hell to wake up in the middle of Chloe's funeral with all those different sets of memories. With the different memories of different time streams, including the one she was just in. She broke down the moment she was alone. She cried into her pillow, remembering everything that she went through and with the knowledge that everything she did to keep Chloe alive was for nothing.

Max didn't want it to end up that way. She didn't want the girl she loved dead while the town that was slowly decaying survived to die another day. It wasn't fair. And after a few beers alone in her room as a toast to Chloe, that's exactly what brought Max to stare at the torn picture while wishing she could go back.

The thing was, in her drunken haze, Max blamed Rachel Amber for everything that happened. If she hadn't disappeared, Chloe, for one reason or another, would have never been in that bathroom. Max would have never awakened her Rewind, and everything would be as it should be. Even if Jefferson and Prescott would still be alive and roaming around. At least then, Chloe would be safe.

Another beer bottle later and Max found herself staring at a picture of Chloe and Rachel. The one Chloe had used for Rachel's Missing Person posters. They looked so happy... So free. It was a photo Jefferson would have despised and that made Max smile. Then she flipped the picture, showing the date written on the back.

April 20th, 2013 was clearly written on the back in cursive. It was obviously Chloe's writing. But what got Max was that it was dated two days before Rachel's disappearance. It wasn't a Polaroid, so it could have been a day or two earlier than what was written but it didn't matter. Max knew in her heart what she had to do.

The photo was hard to focus on. Max had never traveled back through a photo she wasn't there to take, be in, or wasn't a Polaroid. The Dark Room, Chloe's Butterfly, William's Last Day, Warren's Drunken Haze; they all had Max in them in some way, whether she was the subject or the person taking the photo or Max's special brand of non-digital mark. This... This would be something new and potentially devastating. And Max couldn't find it in herself to care.

She could hear voices and sounds as more blood flowed from her nose. She could hear her... and Chloe. She could hear Chloe talking to someone. Laughter. Then she could hear her talking to someone. Her parents. She was talking to her parents when this photo was taken. Homework, maybe? No. It was about Blackwell. An opening in the roster and Jefferson as a teacher. Her dream to be taught by him. If only she knew then what that sick fuck was doing. What he was about to do to Kate and Rachel.

That's why she was doing this. To stop them from reliving something horrible. And to keep Chloe alive. To keep her from that bathroom, even if that sacrifices everything that they've built together. Even Chloe's love for her, if she ever even had it.

The sounds got clearer but Max's head got murkier. She knew she was straining herself. She could probably faint or die. Yet she wouldn't. She couldn't do any of that. Nothing would get in her way when she saves Rachel. Not when she saves Kate. She had to let David know where the bunker was. Just like last time.

Then she had to deal with Nathan. Nathan was the real problem so far. He was the one who overdosed Rachel. Get him to leave the party or lose his faith in Jefferson. Tell him that she knows what was going on and that Jefferson would kill him if he doses Rachel. He would believe her. He'd seen the things that Jefferson could and would do.

Frank. Let Frank know what was going to happen and then he can't sell Nathan the GHB he would use to drug Rachel. That could be a solid back up plan in case everything else goes wrong. If Frank won't sell to Nathan, Nathan won't be able to drug Rachel and accidentally kill her. Then Jefferson won't go after Kate. Maybe. Hopefully Plan David can get to Jefferson and Nathan before Kate ever lands on the internet. The Vortex Club would definitely be shut down then, if Victoria doesn't have the power to save it.

But even that's not enough. Rachel would still go to that party. Max had to stop that first. She had to get to Rachel. Even if it sounded crazy, Max had a feeling that Rachel would believe her. Especially if she was bleeding from the nose and about to pass out. If she was texting David and told her enough to get her to not go to that party. Maybe she wouldn't go. Rachel Amber...

Everything turned white and a searing scream erupted from her mouth as her head felt like it was being split open with a tire iron and a crowbar. It was a couple long seconds later of screaming when she felt something coming together. Like a burned picture getting returned and unfurled to its former glory.

She was in her room in Seattle. There was no mom or pop to talk to her right then which relieved her greatly. If she suddenly woke up in the middle of the conversation... It wouldn't go well for her. Especially if her nose started bleeding.

The door was blocked by white. She'd never tried to leave the whites of a picture before. If it felt like anything that she felt a few seconds earlier, it would be one of the worst of her Hell. Because she knows Chloe is so close. And so is Rachel Amber.

It was like a wavy wall. It was solid but moving. Like a living and breathing thing. Max's head pounded like never before. The wall was pounding in time with her head, making more blood gush from her nose. She was getting light headed and she couldn't faint yet. There was so much to do and she couldn't pass out before she started.

First thing's first, get out of the room.

The white wasn't letting her. She pushed as hard as she could against the white but it wouldn't budge or soak her through like the paint it looked like. The more she tried, the more it resisted. She could hear the beyond though. She could hear her mom doing something...

Golden electricity sparked between her fingers. Was she having a power meltdown? Dog, it was about time. She would have thought her powers would have melted down the moment she first rewrote history with William's Last Day. Or when she rewrote everything back. How else can you change history if you don't rewrite it? Her powers were having a meltdown at the most inopportune moment.

But they didn't have a meltdown. Instead, the lightening sparked against the wall and the white backed away, leaving her doorway open and able to walk through. Her fingers were still sparking with the golden electricity but it didn't hurt. It felt... exhilarating. Even though her head pounded as if she was about to explode and she was internally freaking out about this new development in her powers, it felt good.

She had a mission though. She wasn't about to stop to contemplate the powers that the Universe or Destiny or whatever else bestowed upon her. She had enough of Chaos Theory or just theories in general. Fuck theories, Max preferred action now.

Max ignored her parents. They were watching a movie and didn't notice her leaving. She didn't have time to feel bad as she quickly used her Rewind to start rewinding at a slow pace, nearly capturing them in the moment they were currently at. It was hell, literally and figuratively. Her head slowed its pounding but it added to its intensity. And rewinding at such a slow pace made her almost trip from exhaustion. It was tiring and definitely not her favorite thing to do.

But it needed to be done. Arcadia Bay was hours away, even days on foot. She needed a car and no traffic if she wanted to get there in a few hours. And with the Slow Rewind, she could make it there in a minute or two- at least in everyone else's perspective.

Max's parent's car was in a garage under the apartment complex. Why they lived in an apartment when they had a perfectly good house in Arcadia Bay was one of the arguments she made to her parents when they told her that they were moving to Seattle. They replied the same every time: Arcadia was dying. She had no idea how right they were.

Despite forcing herself to stay awake on the drive, she almost crashed. A lot. The frozen cars were going backwards slightly and it made it hard to not to crash on the pathway to Arcadia. But the thought of Chloe dying over and over again like she did in the Nightmare Realm was what kept her awake. What kept her awake was the thought of everything happening like it did in that Nightmare Realm. Of Chloe thinking less of her and of meeting another Max that she took over. Save Rachel. Save Chloe. Save Kate. Save Victoria. Save Arcadia. And kill Jefferson. Those thoughts raced through her pounding head like a NASCAR tournament.

It still kept her awake at night, what Jefferson did to her. Or had done to her. Or will do to her. Or will or has or had never done to her. Being posed like that. Drugged. She couldn't wish that on any person. Much less a photographer. Much less her, who goes through time with the pictures she has. It was torture. It was a nightmare. It was Hell.

The sweet little town of Arcadia was within reach when Max felt her powers slipping. The golden electricity stopped and the white wall seemed to appear out of nowhere, encircling the town in a dome. Like a snow globe. Max had to work quickly, she knew that. Now she was on an even smaller time crunch. Her Rewind was slipping and time was going forward.

Now that she was in Arcadia, she had to find Rachel. There were only a few possibilities. The Junkyard, with Frank, or at Blackwell. Jefferson was at Blackwell and was the last person Max ever wanted to see but Rachel could be there, as well as Nathan. Rachel could also be at the Junkyard with Chloe, or even the bluenette's house with David looming over them like an overprotective German Shepard. The RV was either at Two Whales Diner or the Beach like usual, sporting Frank and maybe Rachel.

Max would start there. Get Frank to stop selling to Nathan. If Rachel is there, great. Max could warn her too. But Frank is where Jefferson is getting his drugs, even if it's through Nathan. If Rachel wasn't there and she managed to convince Frank not to sell GHB to anyone at Blackwell for a few days, she could ask him where he thought Rachel was. He would probably tell her if he believed what she was saying.

Max went through traffic as if she wasn't in a rush to save the future as she knew it. She looked after Two Whales as she passed, noticing Frank's RV not in the parking lot. Max knew he must be at the beach then. It was one of the only two places he would be. And so she went there and lo and behold there it was.

She stopped at the entrance to Frank's territory, not wanting him to make a big deal out of it. The sun glared through the white dome and the beached whales were gone from the shore. It looked almost happy at the beach. Max was far from it. Agitated, hurting, and nervous were the words to describe her now.

Frank's RV was just as unclean on the outside as it had been two weeks ago. Or will be six months later. She could hear Pompidou padding around through the thin walls of the recreational vehicle. Her nose started to stream at the last second and she wiped it away hastily. Her time was running out faster than it had the other times she rewrote history.

Max knocked on the door hard. She wanted Frank to hear her and get mad. Mad enough to come out and listen. Max heard Frank grumble as if he had been sleeping. Good. It was the last bit of good sleep he would get in a while.

"Who the fuck are you?" Frank growled when he opened the door to see Max standing there.

"That doesn't matter," Max replied. Her words were clear but she couldn't help but feel slightly slurred. "I came to tell you that Rachel is in danger."

"What?" He growled.

"You need to stop selling... to Nathan," she gasped as fresh pain blossomed between her eyes. "He... He's going to overdose her with a drug you sell him at the party in a few days. GHB. You- You can't sell him that drug."

"How the hell do you know this?" He demanded.

"That... That doesn't matter either." Max turned to walk away before her nose started to bleed again or she passed out. But Frank caught her arm.

"What if I don't stop selling to Prescott?" He challenged. She could see it in her eyes that he partially believed her. That he was unsure of the what she had just said.

Max slammed her hand against the side of his RV, golden electricity sparking out of her hands and scarring the poor vehicle. "Then Rachel dies!" She yelled at him. He stared at her wide eyed as his orbs darted between her eyes and her hand. "Rachel dies, Kate Marsh dies, Chloe dies. I won't remember this conversation the next time you see me. Hell, you might never see me again if this doesn't turn out the way I hope it will. But you need to stop selling to Nathan and be the man that saved all those fighting dogs. Be the man that loves Rachel."

His grip loosened on her arm and she tore it away from him. "I need to find out where Rachel is. Where is she?"

"With Price at their 'secret' junkyard," Frank answered. "I assume you know where that is like how you know everything else." Max nodded. He looked around before sighing and whispering, "If I kill Prescott, what will happen?"

"Even if you kill the dog, their owner is still out there," Max told him. "The Rottweiler is no different. I plan on getting both of them. If my plan works, Nathan won't contact you for drugs ever again."

"How?" Frank asked.

Max only shook her head. "That's not important right now. Not to you. What I need you to do is go off radar for the Vortex Club party. If my plan fails, Nathan's going to offer you a lot of cash to get that GHB." Frank nodded. "I'm going to handle everything else."

"Be careful kid," he told her. At that second, her nose started bleeding and she had to steady herself on the wall of the RV. "You okay?" Frank asked.

"Call it a side effect," Max chuckled softly. "Just don't be too surprised if I wind up dead in a ditch somewhere."

"You on somethin'?" He asked. Max shook her head.

"I wish," she told him. "That would make the pain bearable. No, I did this to myself. I just hope I don't die before I'm done doing what I need to do here."

"And that is?" Frank prompted. He seemed to want all the information he could get.

"To make sure Rachel Amber never goes missing," she answered. She saw his jaw drop and chuckled to herself. "I have to go. Remember, I won't remember any of this happened if you happen to see me again. So don't try to get me to remember. Seeing as I'm not dead in the next hour or so, I'll remember this eventually."

"Alright," he said. "Won't say I'm not as confused as I have ever fuckin' been but I believe you. I didn't get your name."

"Max but that may change to Maxine if something goes wrong," she said. "I have to go. Don't sell Nathan or anyone any drugs. Got it?"

"Yes ma'am," he said sarcastically. Max nodded and then peeled her back from the wall and started walking. She stumbled once but caught herself. The pain was barely keeping her awake as it was. The last thing she needed was drugs. Though it was tempting with this pain.

She found herself on the road faster than normal. The streets were practically clear. She was at an impasse though. She should text David. Max knew he wouldn't alert the cops right away until he gathered more proof or searched the Dark Room himself so it was a matter of texting him, calling him, or seeing him in person. She doubted she could handle his stare/glare, so texting was probably the thing to do.

She parked at Two Whales diner, on her way to the junkyard. She quickly typed out a text.

'There's a bunker underneath a desolate barn that Sean Prescott owns. Inside will be red binders linked to the molestation and murder of young women across the country. Mark Jefferson is the culprit. This text never happened. I will not stand up in court or to you. Don't contact me. You know what to do.'

Max deleted the text as soon as she sent it. She knew the police could track her phone if they tried but she hoped David would respect her and not try to track her down. He would get the praise and she would get the satisfaction of seeing Jefferson go to jail as soon as she woke up in the New Max. It was still freaky to think about all those Max's she was taking over. Like mind control or a parasite.

The time traveler was about to put the car in reverse when she saw Nathan Prescott enter Two Whales. It was a chance of luck but Max wasn't about to let it slip away from her grasp. She opened the car door and stepped out, jogging to get inside before Nathan ordered anything.

Max hoped Joyce wasn't working at the diner. As much as it would be good to see the mother of her best friend relatively happy, she couldn't risk being seen by the greatest cook in the world and wife of David Madsen. It wouldn't be good. Especially if she needed to talk to Nathan. She didn't want him to know that she knew Chloe and most likely Rachel.

When Max walked in, she didn't see the blond haired woman but she did see the pompous dick sitting in a familiar booth. She walked over and quickly checked if she was bleeding. She wasn't and knew how to play it off if she suddenly started to.

Max didn't gather any courage before she slid into the booth. She didn't have time to. She needed all the time she had to make this plan perfect. And able to work.

"And who the fuck do you think you are?" Nathan asked her with his usual hostility.

"Shut up and listen Nathan," she told him. He reared back, probably in shock at being talked to like that. "You are going to die if you continue like this. Jefferson will kill you."

"What the fuck do you know?" Nathan snarled. But Max wasn't deterred.

"Do you think you're the only one that's seen him work?" Max smirked, seeing his expression go into one of surprise. "Do you think you're the first protege that thinks they can be like him? Do you think you're going to be the first protege he's killed because you go on your own?"

"He- He wouldn't-" Nathan stammered but Max quickly interrupted him.

"Why? Because you gave him access to the Prescott fortune?" She asked. "Because you gave him access to the drugs he needed to get the girls he wanted duped up? Because you used your dick of a father's money to build the Dark Room for him?"

"How do you know about that!" He yelled.

"Do you think you're the first?" Her nose started bleeding as she ignored his question. "'Cause you aren't. You aren't the first person to think of Jefferson as a father. Only to have him stab you in the back when you mess up his plans."

"That's where you and me are different," Nathan told her, his voice nearly a whisper. "I'm not going to mess up."

"And how much GHB are you going to give Rachel Amber?" The question left his mouth wide open.

"How..."

"Who ever said I was his protege?"

Pausing time was a one time thing. When she saved Kate, she had exhausted her powers so much that the only thing she could do was hold time there, like a picture. Now, she needed that power. She needed to make Nathan scared.

She slowed time down to a halt. It was the perfect picture. 3-D, frozen completely in a single moment, and Nathan poised in his chair as if he was a realistic mannequin. As much as her body and head protested, she moved from her spot across from him to get between him and the wall. She tucked in her legs and faced him, putting her feet on the seat.

Time played again and he jerked from her, too scared to say anything.

"You're wrong, Nathan," she told him. "I'm not one of his proteges. I'm one of his future subjects." She saw him about to interrupt and continued on. "A lot of things happen when you drug Rachel Amber. You dupe her up on too much GHB and she dies. Chloe Price goes looking and then I come to Blackwell. Me and Chloe together find out what happened and Jefferson kills you before taking me and killing Chloe. I'm his last subject, Nathan. Just before he kills me and leaves Arcadia."

"You're a ghost," Nathan whispered.

"You could call me that," Max told him. "I prefer the term 'Future Apparition'." Max forced herself to look Nathan in the eye without snarling in disdain. It was hard for her. "You die, Nathan. Do this, and you subject yourself. Kate Marsh gets bullied so much, she kills herself. You do this, and Victoria Chase dies."

"Victoria?" Nathan squeaked. She was getting to him, Max could feel it.

"Before I was taken, I had warned Victoria that you would drug her. She believed me." Max felt tears prick her eyes as she though about what happened to that Victoria, even though she was a total bitch. "I didn't know Jefferson was behind it. Or that you were already dead. She went to Jefferson for protection.

"A storm comes that night. One that rips this town apart and so Jefferson decides to hide out with only one of us." She gulps at the thought. "He kills Victoria and dumps her body somewhere. I was asleep; I didn't even know it happened until he told me and Victoria was missing."

Nathan starts moving and time stops in its tracks. He was going to hug her. She moves so she's standing outside of the booth looking in. She takes a deep breath, letting her anger take over for the next part. She'd been around people long enough to know what to say and how to say it, even if she is awkward when the words come from her own mouth. Now, it's coming from at least two or three Max's that were in Jefferson's hands.

Memories in different time streams were fickle things. They each come with their own Maxes and personalities, stored in Max's mind. She'd gotten better at accessing memories from different time lines, but it was hard and a strain. Her emotions helped open doors and she could feel other Maxes from her time messing with photos in Jefferson's Dark Room joining in on her anger, making her powers more erratic and potent than usual.

Time starts again and Max slams her hands down on the table, loud enough to attract a few people's attention. Only for them to go back to what they were doing when they noticed Nathan Prescott.

"This starts with you, Nathan," Max hissed quietly. She didn't want anyone to remember her face when she leaves. "I tracked everything down to you. Rachel Amber cannotdie. Do you understand?"

He nods weakly, not saying everything. "The moment you contact Frank Bowers about GHB or any drug close to a Vortex Party, I will come back to this moment and kill you instead." He nods again. "Good. See you, Nathan. If you happen to see me at Blackwell, I won't be who I am now. I won't remember any of this, so don't expect me to have some secret agreement with you. Get it?"

"R-Right," he replied.

"Jefferson is going to jail soon. If not, I'll kill him myself. I expect you to sever all ties with him if you don't want your dad to be under FBI investigation." Nathan shuddered at the thought. "You never knew what Jefferson was doing with the Dark Room. You wanted to help him because he made you feel worth it. That's what you tell the cops. Prescott with daddy issues takes solace in teacher; teacher abuses teen to kill young girls. That's what the press will say Nathan. Daddy won't be upset if you were never apart of it." Nathan nods again. "Remember Nathan, this never happened."

More blood spurted from her nose as she paused time again. She was overusing her power and time now. She could feel her grip on this moment in time slipping. But there was still so much to do. So much that needed to be done before she could go back to her present time. Or die. Either way, she needed to use the time she had to talk to Rachel. Several other Maxes in her mind grabbed her moment in time like a vice, unwilling to let them go for the sake of Chloe.

That was the last step. Talk to Rachel. Tell her not to trust Jefferson. If it was one thing that Max knew, it was that Rachel's relationship with Jefferson had to go. Though it would make Jefferson act quicker than he would have, she knew that if Rachel was with Chloe, they would be okay. Not like when she was with Chloe. Max relies too heavily on her power over time to fix things. Take that away and she was virtually useless unless someone needed a snoop.

Rachel was different. Jefferson called her the human chameleon. Everything points to Rachel being invincible when in groups of people. She could blend in with everyone. That's what Chloe had said. It didn't need to be permanent. Just long enough for Jefferson to go to jail.

The drive to the junkyard was painful for Max. It was where Rachel was buried. Where Chloe almost died twice and was actually murdered. It was where Max was drugged and kidnapped by Jefferson. It held a lot of history. Some of it bad but the rest could have been good. But Max was only there for the bad. Seemed like a shame if she didn't think of what a hellhole that place was.

Max quickly made her way to the hideout. She ignored everything else. She could see the world through the lens of the camera and now she was ignoring it. Max had to be the worst photographer in the world. Though Jefferson was a sick fuck, he was a good photographer. As much as she hated herself for admitting it. 'Always take the shot' was a good motto, despite who it came from. It worked for her. And here she was, too afraid to take the shot she'd taken in her mind so many times.

She could hear someone smoking in the hideout. She caught a glimpse of blond hair through the cracks of the rundown building and knew that Rachel was alone. Where Chloe went was bothering Max but she had a mission to do and wouldn't let her get distracted by the girl she loved. No matter how much she wanted to run up and kiss her.

"Rachel Amber?" Max called through the door. "I have to talk to you; it's important. You're in danger."

Rachel walked through the doorway and Max had to hold in a gasp for fear of making her head spike in pain. She was beautiful. Blond hair and hazel nut eyes. Creamy skin and a single peacock feather as an earring in her left ear.

"Who are you?"

"That's not important," Max told her, using the same line from when she talked with Frank. "What is, is that you don't go to the Vortex Club party. And you stay away from Jefferson."

"What?"

"Jefferson is going to drug you and take you somewhere where he can kill you in peace." Rachel wasn't buying it. Why was it so much easier to talk to Frank and even Nathan than it is this woman?

"Right. And I should believe you 'cause..."

"Because Frank believes me," she told the blond.

"Why would you tell me that?" Rachel demanded.

"Because I know that you and Frank are together and that you straight up lied to Chloe's face!" Max yelled. Her hands started sparking again and they made Rachel wide eyed. "You are going to die at that party Rachel Amber. And your death will be the beginning. I already stopped it on two fronts but if you want to live, you'll stay away from Mark Jefferson."

"I don't understand-"

"I don't give a damn!" Max snarled. She stepped up to Rachel, who was a good few inches taller than her. "Chloe is my best friend. In this reality or any of the others, that doesn't change. But she can't seem to live when your not in the picture, so get it through your fucking skull that me saving you isn't for your benefit. Chloe will die without you. As many times as I've saved her, I can't keep her alive and it all starts with you."

For the sake of it, Max stopped time and walked behind the actress, intent on getting it through the blond's thick skull. When time started again, Rachel looked around wildly only for her to spot Max behind her.

"If you die, she dies," Max warned her. She could start to see the belief in Rachel's eyes. "I love Chloe, and I won't let her die. Not again. Understand?"

"How many times has she died?" Rachel asked. Max didn't answer. "How many?!"

"Seven!" Max yelled. "She's died seven times! And I was there to stop five of them!" Rachel stared at her.

"What happened?" Rachel demanded. "What happened the seventh and sixth times?"

"The last time she died, she sacrificed herself for the good of Arcadia Bay," Max told her. "There was a storm and I messed with time so much that the Universe decided that it was the town or Chloe. Chloe told me to save the town; the fifth time, she asked me to kill her."

"What?" Rachel cried. "No, she doesn't think like that anymore! She wouldn't ask that!"

"No, that Chloe wouldn't," Max agreed. "But one that was paralyzed, in a wheelchair with a failing respiratory system and medical bills costing a million dollars would."

"What do you-" Max started to fuzz out when Rachel started talking. It felt like the edges of her vision were being burned with chemicals. Like she was a photo.

"Enough," she told her. "I can't explain it all now. I won't remember this conversation the next time you see me so don't come to me for answers. I won't have them, yet. Stay away from Jefferson and keep close to Chloe, Frank, and David."

"Step-Douche? Why?" Rachel asked.

"I got him on his way to Jefferson's Dark Room," Max said. "With my help, he'll find the place and Jefferson will be arrested soon if not by the end of this summer... FUCK!"

Her nose started spilling again. And it didn't stop easily. They white wall that surrounded the town seemed to be suffocating her. Her vision reddened and blackened. She yelled as if her life depended on it. Because it felt like it did. Her mind was screaming at her, cursing her out for staying that long in one moment... It was tearing her apart.

"Shit," she mumbled when she stopped screaming as she wiped blood off on her hand.

Rachel suddenly came up to Max, holding her chin as she wiped more blood off with her thumb. "Are you okay?"

"I will be," she answered. "But you need to stay away from Jefferson until he's arrested. Or dead."

"I didn't get your name," Rachel hinted.

"It's Max," she told Rachel.

"As in Max Caulfield?" Rachel asked. Max chuckled a bit before standing straight.

"I take it Chloe has been bitching about me to you?" Max asked. "It's good she had a friend like you when I couldn't be there. Or won't be there... I can't tell you how much I owe you for being with her. She told me you were her angel and it kills her when we find you."

"You... You found my body?" Rachel stuttered. Max solemnly nodded. "Where was it?"

"You don't need to know that." Max took a deep breath, trying to calm the pounding in her head. "She loves you, you know." Max saw Rachel look down. "And I have a feeling you feel the same, even if you love Frank too."

"What do you want me to do?" Rachel asked. Max didn't want to spend this time giving Rachel Amber advice, but if it kept Chloe happy and safe...

"It's not my decision to make," Max answered. "You have options. And I won't fault you for choices. I'd be a hypocrite to judge you. I caused the destruction of Arcadia Bay and Chloe's death. But whatever decision you make, you need to be there for Chloe. And let Frank know that he'll have his money when Max remembers."

"You know about Chloe's debt?" Rachel questioned again.

"I helped her get rid of it," Max snorted. Then she turned to Rachel. "Frank knows it won't last. Either getting away from Arcadia or something else, he knows he's going to lose you one day. I just guess it's my retribution he doesn't have to lose you in the worst way possible."

Before Rachel could ask another question, Max started bleeding again. "I can't stay here. See you in a few months, if everything works out." Max turned to leave but looked over her shoulder. "It was nice to finally meet you, Rachel... And thank you for being there."

She paused time before Rachel could say anything and went back to her car. She was woozy and in pain. She wasn't sure if she would make it to Seattle but she had to try. Painkillers would have bettered her entire situation but after everything with Jefferson, she wasn't going anywhere near drugs ever again. Not unless she had to.

The drive back to Seattle in paused time almost killed her. Besides the white wall seeming to suck all the air out of the car, her head was pounding at her to stop holding time. She Max couldn't stop yet. It was in the middle of the freeway and she couldn't just stop.

She parked the car in the same spot in the same garage her parents had. Like nothing had ever happened in the hour she was gone (to them). Her parents were still sitting on the couch, watching a movie and most likely didn't know she was gone. Good. She could explain her absence from the living room by falling asleep on the bed. Sleep was always a good alibi.

Even though she was positively exhausted, she couldn't help but wonder if she had actually changed anything. If Rachel would take her warning seriously. If Frank would. If Nathan would. If David would. Max sighed and pulled out her phone. No message from David. Good.

And then she collapsed. The edges of her vision turning white and blinding her as she shut her eyes.


	2. Episode One: Tachypsychia (Part Two)

**Part Two: This One October**

Max woke up standing in the middle of her dorm room at Blackwell, not really doing anything. Well, she assumed she wasn't doing anything prior the Takeover, as she dubbed it. She was facing the couch and standing. She wasn't paused in mid stride or something that gave her any indication of what she was doing.

Max's dorm looked the same as it had in the other timeline. Her guitar was by the couch, Lisa was still watered and by the window, and her photo wall was B.N.; Before Nathan. Wait, her photo wall...

There were new photos on the wall, making it bigger than it had been. The amount of film Max would have had to use to get her wall of photos like that would had to have been astronomical. And there was one thought in Max's head: _What the hell happened here?_

She couldn't remember anything. She... She was at Chloe's funeral. Woke up there, at the lighthouse with the sun shining like everything was fine with the world when it wasn't without Chloe. The butterfly appeared and then Max went to her dorm to drown her sorrows in cheap beer like she knew Chloe would have done. A last testimate.

Blurs and images assaulted her brain. Frank, Nathan, and Rachel. Junkyard... No, Two Whales. Wait, that wasn't right. Her head pounded. Less like a time spell and more like a hangover, if TV had gotten them right. And boy did she feel like throwing up.

Did she screw around with time? Again? After she promised herself that she wouldn't? Fuck, it felt like it. She could _feel_ the differences in the air. It was faint; Max wouldn't have noticed it if she spent more time there. The feeling was already starting to ebb away, like her leg waking up after falling asleep.

Why... Why did she go back? Max spun in a circle and flopped on her bed. The action was normal, or at least felt like it was. Familiar, she guessed. It felt safe, before everything that happened. And it only made her freak her out more.

 _'What the hell happened, Max?'_ She thought to herself. _'Did we go back in time again? Did we mess something up? Did... we erase everything again? Did we- I-... Did I erase_ Chloe?'

Max felt her mind seize and her heart clamp down on itself. No. She wouldn't overreact just yet. She couldn't. If she somehow fucked up a timeline so much that Chloe was hurt- or... or worse... She couldn't take fucking up another Chloe. She couldn't deal if she had to kill her, again.

She needed to think. Needed to remember what had happened. Her mind was empty until she opened the floodgates. The murky memories flooding her brain until it was an incoherent mess puddled inside. And then she started to go through them one by one.

The funeral was slow and painful for her, especially being confined between Warren and Kate. They were trying to be helpful, trying to be there for her. But she didn't want to be with her friends. She wanted to be with Chloe. So she ran up to her room as soon as the funeral was over, only stopping at Frank's RV to buy some booze off of him.

The next hour or so was a mix between drinking and sobbing and cursing the world and her reality. The reality that she finally landed in. The reality without Chloe.

Max felt horrible in a dress. There was something revealing about it that sent chills down her spine. Not to mention it was a black dress worn for the girl she loves' funeral. So she changed into jeans, a T-shirt, and her hoodie. It still smelled of rain and of Chloe. She felt like she didn't go through all that shit and had just met Chloe. As if she was still in that punk's room, listening to Bright Eyes on the Hi-Fi and watching her blaze.

Her bag was sitting by her desk, as normal as it usually would have been. That was when Max felt it. A surging feeling coming from the bag that jumping into different realities gave to her. She was more than a little tipsy when she reached for the bag and most of its contents spilled onto the floor. Max initially rushed to pick them up but soon slowly started to reminisce as she gazed into the pictures of the Week That Never Was. The pictures somehow came back with her.

Then... Then she found the photo of her and Rachel. She remembered thinking that it was the blond girl's faint for what happened and... Oh, God! Did... Did she really go back, all the way back, to keep Chloe alive? To before Rachel died? That would have fucked the time stream that Max knew royally. Everything was changed.

The only question was: Was this time steam one she wanted to keep?

Max needed to know what she got herself into. And like always, turned to her journal. Her bag wasn't on her when she did the Takeover of this Reality's Max, so it had to be somewhere in the room. Max practically leaped off her bed and started searching the room. It wasn't beside Lisa or her desk, behind the couch or underneath the bed, or in her drawers. But it was in the closet.

It was a bit beat up, as if she was upset and threw it haphazardly into the closet. What could make her do that? Actually, Max knew exactly what would make her react like that. But what would make B.T. (Before Takeover) Max react like that? Only one way to find out.

The bag still had that feeling, the surging one, that it had that night. Did... Did she wear the bag when she went back? Grabbing it, she shifted through it while coming up with pictures from that week. The ones that never existed.

Max slid the journal out, sat down on her bed, and flipped open to the page where she went to Blackwell. Max started to read it out loud, somehow feeling that it would make it real if she did. That nothing was influencing her mind.

 _September 17th, 2013:_

 _Helloooo, Journal. I know I haven't written in a while and I'm sorry. It's just that... I GOT ACCEPTED INTO BLACKWELL ACADEMY!_

 _Can you believe that? Me, getting accepted into Blackwell back in Arcadia Bay? It's insane. But that's not the only thing that went off the rails. Six months ago, Mark Jefferson, the whole reason for me applying to Blackwell in the first place, was ARRESTED. Can you believe that?_

 _Apparently, he and Nathan Prescott- the kid of Sean Prescott- were drugging and murdering girls after taking them to a hidden dark room underneath a farm house. Crazy, right? Nathan confessed to the cops that he was mentally ill and Jefferson was the only one who treated him like a human being. But he saw something- a hallucination, he said- that set him straight. Maybe there is a god in this world?_

 _But anyways, After that whole big mess, my parents didn't want me going to Blackwell at all! Like, seriously? It's not the school's fault that the most important teacher there was a serial killer! Principal Wells is being investigated and so is Sean Prescott, who vouched for Jefferson in the first place._

 _But I still want to go. I'm probably going to get so much shit from her, but I'd like to see Chloe. You know, to make up for those five years I was being a chickenshit. I still can't believe it's been five years since I bailed on my best friend when she needed me most. What kind of best friend does that? I'm going to try to make it right but I'm still scared going, which is why I haven't done it yet._

 _Eventually mom and pops gave in. I was almost an adult anyways and could make my own decisions, even if they made them anxious. School has been... different to say the least. It's kind of 'High School' without the Musical. The cliques and the cliches._

 _I was late to my first class. Practical right? Science with Ms. Grant. I got lost and was finally at the door when I met my first friend. Her name's Rachel Amber. Beautiful, charismatic, and trying way too hard to be my friend. There's something off about her but who am I to judge? I'm an antisocial hipster photographer. Not like I can say anything._

 _The next few days, Rachel and I hung out when we could. Turns out we live on the same floor in the dorms! She's only two doors down from me. There are only a few people in the dorms. Dana, Victoria (Queen Bitch, apparently), Juliet, Taylor, Kate, and Rachel are the girls that live with me in the dorms._

 _Dana Ward is nice. She's a bit older than me and a cheerleader, so she's pretty popular. She seems real down to Earth, though, and nice to hang around. Her best friend, Juliet Watson, is a amateur journalist. She works for the school paper and is all into gossip and the truth. They're both really nice to me so I think they're my friends._

 _Victoria Chase rules this school. At least, from what I've seen in the last few weeks. She's a real bitch. She and Nathan are best friends... Or were, before Nathan checked himself into a Mental Hospital for the summer. He isn't back but Victoria's holding her breath, though we can all tell that she misses her friend._

 _Taylor is Victoria's girl best friend. There's not much to say about her, just that she seems nice when Vic-Bitch isn't around._

 _Kate Marsh is the sweetest and most kind person I've ever met. She's a Christian and a goody-goody but she is a joy to be around. We had tea a few times and she even let me borrow her book. I'd like to have tea with her more._

 _Rachel Amber... Rachel is something else. At times, it feels like she knows exactly what I'm feeling. Like she knows exactly what I'm thinking, too. She is beautiful; hazel eyes, honey blond hair, and a total hot bod._

 _(Can't believe I just wrote that.)_

 _Shit, Rachel just knocked on the door. I'll write later._

Max flipped the page and nearly raised an eyebrow at the time jump. It was nearly three to four weeks later. October 11th, 2013. That... That was the day before. Her last entry was yesterday. Max read slowly.

 _October 11th, 2013_

 _I'm so fucking stupid._

 _I'm sorry I didn't write in a long time. It's been a hectic few weeks. Want an example?_

 _I found out I'm gay. Huh, how's that for self-discovery? Max the antisocial hippie is gay. Imagine that. No wonder why I wasn't into boys. 'Cause I preferred girls._

 _Do you want to know how I found out? Cause I fell in love with Rachel Fucking Amber, who I just found out already had a girlfriend! How fucked up is that? Did my life turn into a fucking soap opera? Come watch the 'Max Fucks Up' show!Tune in tomorrow to watch the next episode! Max has a fucking panic attack!_

 _That's right, I had a fucking panic attack when I found out. Rachel had apparently been dating this girl for the last few months, way before she met me. I don't know who it is, only a description from far away. Blue hair, tattoos, likes hanging with the skater kids._ _Saw them making out when I was looking for pictures to take._

 _I'm not sad or jealous. Not that Rachel has a girlfriend or someone has Rachel. I'm just a little- Okay, a lot- sad and heartbroken. I mean, why would Rachel like ME? The nobody? Why the panic attack?_

 _Because what the fuck am I supposed to do now? These feelings aren't going away. It's already been three weeks and now it just hurts. It... it hurts to see her happy with someone else and know I can never have that._

 _IT'S NOT FAIR!_

The writing cut off. Max assumed that was when she threw the journal. The page was filled with splotches. Most likely tears. And then came the full force of what she had just read.

Rachel... Rachel was alive. And Max- the previous Max- fell in love with her. Then was heartbroken when she found out about Rachel's girlfriend. Who had blue hair... tattoos... Oh, God, that's Chloe!

The journal dropped from Max's hands and the appendages found their was to her mouth to stifle the sob that wracked through her body. Chloe... Chloe was alive. She was living, walking... loving. The floodgates opened and Max started to cry quietly. Her Chloe had moved on, even if she didn't remember what had happened that week. And to Rachel.

But she was alive. She was breathing and... and that was what mattered. She was in Arcadia. Rachel was alive. Chloe was alive. Jefferson was in jail. Everything was perfect, minus the detail that Chloe didn't know that Max was in Arcadia or alive or knew her. Yet she was happy that Chloe was finally happy. And Max would keep it that way. No matter what.

Max couldn't tell how long she had been sitting there before her phone rang. It was in the hoodie pocket. She laid down as she pulled it out, looking at whoever texted her. Rachel's name and face flashed on screen. She thought about Other Max's words. _I fell in love with Rachel Fucking Amber._

That was gone now. It felt weird that she was still in love with one of the duo. Either way, either reality, it felt like fucking karma. Did the universe hate her so much that it had to cause her heartache now and forever? It seemed likely. After all, she still destroyed Arcadia Bay and killed a lot more. She might as well be classified as a mass murderer.

'Hey, where are you?' The text read. Rachel was asking where she was. Why? Did they have plans to hang out or...

'Sick at the dorm. Why?' Max texted back. It wasn't lying. She was sick and tired of her powers. Sick and tired of the universe fucking her up. This was a reality where Chloe was alive and everything was normal. Where everything was normal at the price of Max's happiness and sanity. That was a price she was willing to pay.

Rachel texted back barely a minute after. 'We were planning to meet at the school,' it said. 'We had plans to work on that photography project.'

'Right. Sorry,' Max texted. 'Guess I forgot. I'll make it up to you though. Promise.'

'You better ;)'

Max sighed as she dropped her phone to her side. How was she going to spend the Reality? She didn't want her powers anymore but she still had them. She could feel them beneath her skin, pulsing like a heartbeat. It was still apart of her. Still affecting her brain. She wouldn't use them. That was it. She was done using her powers for anything other than life threatening situations. She was done.

Max was tired. So very tired. Using her powers and snooping skills to find out what the hell this reality consisted of took a lot out of her. Sleeping was her best option. Sleeping until the cows came home. Max chuckled to herself at such an old expression.

Her eyes closed and her breathing evened.

* * *

Max choked on a scream as the loud knocks on her door got louder. She was shaking and sweating. Max's mind was going miles without stopping. Her breathing was short and gasping while her voice tried to make itself known. Her heart was clutching itself in a vice. She couldn't get enough air in her lungs.

She was on the floor, the carpet rubbing into her forearms painfully as she tried to make sense of where she was. More importantly, _when_ she was. Jefferson wasn't in the room with her. Tens of little shining flashlights were gone and the entire room was dark, not well lit with a white backdrop. There wasn't a camera in her face or hands on her body. She was alone. Completely and utterly alone.

Max laid on the floor, trying to calm her racing heart and force down the bile rising in her throat as the images fresh in her mind remained there for a moment longer than she wanted. The smooth hair cut, the latex gloves, the black glasses, and the angry voice. The sound of his voice echoed in her ears, drowning everything else out.

 _'I said STAY STILL!'_

Max's eyes shut tighter as memories were shoved into the forefront of her mind. As doubts wormed their way with them. _You could still be there_ , they said. _Still in that room. Chloe is dead and he's kept you here, in this room, as his toy. You are going to be here forever!_

She wanted to scream that she wouldn't be. Wanted to scream that she was still in that reality which she fell asleep to. The one where Chloe was alive with Rachel and they were in love and Jefferson was locked up where he would never hurt any of them ever again.

But she was practically asleep when she changed to this reality. Who was she to say that the same thing didn't happen again? She was drunk last time. Hurting. Grieving for what she had. Two out of three ain't bad. If anything, it made most out of the same situation.

She wasn't... She couldn't...

Her breathing shortened. She couldn't breathe. She... She was still in the Rachel Reality. She... She had to be! Everything seemed good there! She seemed to have friends! She... Chloe was alive!

The door knocking stopped and a voice was outside. A voice Max recognized as a dead man's.

"Max? You in there? I know it's late but I brought soup!" The voice said. The voice of Rachel Amber. Max... Max was still in the Rachel Reality. She was still there. Still _here._ The pressure in her brain eased and the voices of doubt stopped talking. Max could finally breathe.

"Max..." Rachel's voice faded off but Max's doubts didn't return. "Just... Look, if your pissed at me, let me know. Okay? I'll be in my room if you want to talk. Just talk to me, alright?"

Lying on the floor, Max could feel Rachel move away from her door. Could feel when the door closed and everything was once again quiet. Max's mind, the hallways of the dorm, everything. Max could finally think once again.

Max spent at least an hour lying on the floor breathing normally, simply staring up at the ceiling. Though she had a nightmare, she couldn't help but smile. It was real. This reality was _real._ Chloe was really alive and so was Rachel. Kate was never taken and that video was never out there. Nathan wasn't there and instead in a mental hospital somewhere, hopefully far away.

Oh God... That dream...

She couldn't sleep the rest of the night. Kept up by the threat of Jefferson. Even locked up and in a different reality where they never met, Jefferson still found a way to take away her power. Still found a way to torture her. Wasn't enough that she couldn't look through a camera's view finder without freaking; he had to take away her sleep, too?

The sun appeared in her window before she knew it. The birds started chirping and everything seemed so... normal. Like the universe was mocking her. _'This is all you had to do_ _,'_ it told her. _'All those lives and rewinds were for nothing; All you had to do is stop Rachel from dying. Let's see how well you deal.'_

The truth was, she wasn't 'dealing' at all. She was sad that Chloe wasn't hers- devastated, really- but as long as she was happy and loved, it didn't matter what the hell happened to Max. As long as Chloe was happy... and alive.

For now, Max only had to live her life. Go to Blackwell, go to classes, hang out with people without drawing too much attention. Seemed easy. And everything she knew was thrown out the window with the other timeline. It was a new start. Max could deal with that.

It was Saturday. Saturday meant... Shit, she didn't know what to do. Did she have any plans? She didn't have any classes; it was the weekend. But did Rachel want to do something? Should she ask? Maybe she should take this one step at a time? That sounded good. Get acquainted with the timeline.

First, get dressed. Max looked through her closet. Thankfully, there were none of Rachel's things in her closet. Probably because her room was down the hall but it sort of made Max relieved. Not that she didn't trust her journal or Rachel, but Rachel had things in Chloe's closet and the two had messed around before Rachel was with Frank. It made her feel relief that Past Max and Rachel didn't fool around, especially when Chloe was in the picture as Rachel's... As Rachel's girlfriend...

Max pulled off her clothes, noting that the scars on her body were gone. The small scars that also disappeared when she let Chloe die. She had gotten some small scars until the fourth day. Anything after that was erased when she went back to escape Jefferson. Again.

Max didn't feel like taking a shower. If Autopilot Max was anything like her, then she would have taken a shower regularly. Max could skip a day once. She pulled out jeans and a t-shirt from the closet and put it on. She only paused when she noticed what the shirt was in the mirror.

The silver butterfly emblazoned on her chest stood out against the back background of the black cloth. Max felt a shiver of hatred and fear run along her spine and strike her heart. It was the same shirt she was wearing in the Dark Room. The same one she wore when Jefferson killed Nathan and Chloe. The same one she wore each and every time she had to go back into that room. In her dreams and in that week.

Max shrugged it off and continued getting ready for the day. Her trusty hoodie was hung up in the closet, still smelling of Chloe and rain. She was wearing it when she went back right? Has to be, cause the bag was there too.

The bag...

Max didn't want anything to happen. If someone found those photos. Found everything in her bag...

She had more than pictures in there. Files, coordinates, other pictures of her and Chloe's investigation. Her other journal. The one she used to try to figure out all this time travel stuff. An extra copy of Rachel's Missing Persons Poster she got from Chloe. The picture she used to get to the Rachel Reality. If anyone found that, it could bring up questions she didn't want to answer.

She stuffed everything back into the bag, substituting Past Max's journal for the pictures of her and Chloe during that week. She didn't need anyone else reading what she did. That didn't apply anymore. Not since the Takeover. She stuffed everything into the bag and looked around for a place to dump it. She knew that she should get rid of the pictures as well, but she couldn't. She couldn't get rid of the evidence of her special week with Chloe. With the girl she loves. Of the girl that didn't exist anymore. Not to her, at least.

Instead of stuffing them in that bag, she grabbed a small box of chocolate of her desk. She didn't even realize she had that yesterday. She threw the chocolates away and carefully put the pictures in the box. They fit nicely, just the right size. She felt sad that Past Max bought chocolates for herself to gorge. She knew how hard it was to lose a love to someone else. Hell, it happened a lot more than once. In both the real world and the Nightmare Realm. It had happened now.

There was room underneath her bed so she put it there. Far enough that no one could easily see it. But they were there, not a backup plan. Just... Nostalgia.

Max couldn't find it in herself to get rid of William's camera. There were now two in this timeline, she guessed. One with Max and the other with Chloe. Max didn't know how that worked but she wouldn't question it. She should probably hide William's Camera all the same though. So she put it in the box underneath her bed.

Max had to steady her breathing before she could even touch the doorknob. Her heart raced. Was she really so sure she was in the Rachel Reality? Was she really so sure that Jefferson wasn't hiding behind the door waiting for her to come out?

She turned the knob and swung the door open anyway.

The dorm hallway was the only thing to greet her. It was normal. At least, as normal as it could be. It didn't seem to be looping, there were no pictures plastered all over the walls, and no Kate jumping into a white expanse instead of her room. It was a normal dorm.

Max still had trouble stepping into the empty hallway. No one seemed to be up that day and it was only six forty-seven in the morning. She breathed in once again, and took the next step. Two: leave the building.

It felt like she was still sneaking around. Early hours of the morning, not a person in sight, keeping her head down. It felt like she was back at the other timelines or even the Nightmare. Like she was still hiding from all the Jeffersons and Warrens that tried to find her. It made her gut quiver.

She paused when she passed Rachel's room. Did she want to knock? No... No she needed this day to get reacquainted with the time stream. Maybe talk to Frank... Yeah, she would go to Two Whales and talk to Frank. That could make an interesting conversation.

Max knew that she could tell Rachel, or even Chloe, but why bother. She didn't want the questions. She didn't want to relive the multiple levels of Hell she was put through. She didn't want to retell the tale of how Chloe died more than once no matter what and how Rachel was dead and how Kate was drugged and killed herself twice and how Max killed Arcadia Bay twice and-

She quickly moved on from Rachel's room, not caring if the blonde heard her run for the door.

The air was cool and crisp. No one was out there except for Samuel, who was talking with his squirrels. But then they turned to her. Samuel was smiling at her and she didn't find it creepy, but there was something off about it. Almost... thankful.

There was no one on campus that early and the bus was due at the stop in a few minutes. Max checked her phone, seeing that their were no texts and no people looking for her. Max looked ahead a few hours and realized that Joyce wasn't going to be at Two Whales. The woman had the most flexible schedule ever, so Max should be on the lookout but it shouldn't matter until Frank gets there. Or she could just go to his RV. Two Whales first though.

The bus came at seven exactly. Max didn't have her headphones but she didn't really want them anyways. It would feel like deja vu. Like she was still in the original timeline. Like she was going to meet Chloe at Two Whales when she wasn't. She could hear the blood pound in her ears as she tried to dispel the thought. It wasn't like that.

"You're okay, Max," she whispered to herself. "You aren't back there. And you never will be."

Even as she uttered the words, she didn't believe them.

The bus stopped at the diner nearly ten minutes later. Frank's RV was parked in it's usual spot. Max closed her eyes for a second before getting out of her seat and exiting the bus. She gave a small wave to the driver, trying hard not to remember David sitting in that chair, behind the wheel.

The building flashed in front of her. One second it was the nice building in the Rachel Reality and the next, it was demolished. It was raining, fires burning all around her and half the building was caved in. Yet that didn't stop people from calmly entering and exiting the building. Didn't stop the laughter coming from the inside. Didn't stop the music from the jukebox. And then it was gone and the normal Two Whales Diner was there in all its glory.

Max let out a shaky breath and squeezed her eyes closed. That... That wasn't real. It never happened. It never happened. It never happened...

When she opened them again, it was still the same Two Whales she closed her eyes to. It was normal and she allowed herself a near hysterical laugh. She was going crazy. She knew it. Max Caulfield had messed with time so much that it made her go fucking crazy. But at least Chloe was alive and safe and happy.

Max felt fake as she went up the stairs and into the comfy, fifties reminiscent diner. She was smiling at people that smiled at her and she couldn't help but remember how they died. The cop was on fire. The trucker was pinned under a two by four and left to die. The civilian was hit by a stray flying car. And she felt fake, pretending that none of those things happened. Even if they never technically did. It made her head throb and the pain automatically made her hand come up to wipe her lip.

Frank was sitting in the back booth like he had been when she stole his keys to the RV. Max saw that instead of beans, he was eating pancakes. Max guessed beans at seven something in the morning wasn't a very balanced meal. She felt her stomach growl and knew that she was hungry. But she didn't bring any cash. Damn.

'I'll eat later,' she thought. Then she walked over to Frank.

He didn't bother looking up as she slid into his booth, opposite to him. Instead, he started talking.

"You better have a damn good reason for sitting in my booth," he growled. He was still looking at his food, so he probably didn't know it was her. And she doubted that she and Frank met in this timeline. So he probably thought she was someone else.

"Oh, come on," she said in a sarcastic voice. "Aren't you at all happy to see me?"

He head whipped up faster than she had ever seen. His eyes went large like a doe's in headlights and his mouth hung open. It was clear he was speechless which thoroughly impressed her. In any of the other realities, he's never been speechless. Angry, threatening, and sobbing, sure, but never speechless.

"I'll take that as a yes," Max said with a small smile. "Close your mouth; you'll get flies and I'm not sure Pompidou would like that."

"I thought you were dead," he finally commented as he leaned back in his seat.

"To be honest, I might as well be," Max replied with a sigh. She looked around the diner, taking in the faces that were dead or hurting with what Max had caused. "I probably should be," she whispered. Then she turned back to Frank. "But enough about me. How have you been?"

"Peachy," he said. "Now what the fuck do you want?"

"To know how you're doing," Max answered. Frank grunted.

"Right," he scoffed. "You wanna know how I'm doing?" Max nodded. "I'm heartbroken cause my girlfriend chose her friend over me. I'm broke cause I stopped selling to Blackwell kids like you asked. And I'm crabby because I don't have that three grand I loaned to Price back already. Speaking of which, where's my money, Max?"

"You'll get it," Max told him. "Patience is a virtue. And you can sell to Blackwell now. I just wanted Nathan without his resources." She leveled her eyes with him. "Did Nathan contact you about any drugs before or after the Vortex Club party?"

Frank shook his head. "Nah. Whatever you did scared that kid bad. Checked himself into a mental institution cause he thought he was mentally ill."

"So I've heard," she said dryly. "Did you and Rachel at least end on good terms?"

"I don't have to answer to you," Frank threatened. "You don't know anything I'm going through-"

"If you think I haven't lost people I love, you're wrong." Max quietly snarled. Like when talking to Nathan, all the Maxes that have lost Chloe, one way or another, had their emotions pushed to the forefront of Max's mind. Max was trying so very hard to not punch Frank in the face. She succeeded. "I've lost a lot more than one girlfriend, Frank. I'd be mindful of what you say next," she warned.

"Sorry..." he grumbled. "I didn't know."

"Nobody does," she said quietly. "Even the ones I lost."

He looked up at her but didn't say anything. She knew she wasn't making any sense. But she didn't care at that moment. She was spiraling down a hole of memories that didn't exist. At least until Joyce came up to the booth.

"Need a refill, Frank- Max? Max Caulfield?" Joyce was looking like she never died. Like she never housed four to five people in the diner during the storm that killed them all. Like she never kicked David out and knew that Chloe was getting worse. She seemed... happy.

"Hello, Joyce," Max said as she smiled.

"You two know each other?" Frank asked. Joyce turned her attention to him.

"I should be asking you two the same question," she said with a bit of challenge in her voice. Frank bristled but didn't do anything.

"Joyce is my childhood best friend's mom," Max answered him. He raised an eyebrow at her.

"You used to be childhood best friends with Chloe?" He asked. "What happened?"

"Chloe lost her dad and I had to move to Seattle," Max told him. "Five years with no contact and now I'm back, going to school at Blackwell." She turned to Joyce. "Could you not tell her that I'm back, Joyce? Please?"

"Why?" Joyce asked. "She'd be thrilled that your back. And she could always use a straight arrow like you in her life."

Max smirked at the 'straight' part but didn't let it show. In the past (to her) it would have concerned her at how good she was at lying now and how much she had lied. But now, she knew it was for the best as long as their was a little bit of truth in there.

"No, she wouldn't," Max told her. "She's still very much pissed at me. And she has Rachel now and I don't want to taint her happiness."

"How do you know about Rachel?" Joyce asked her.

"Because Rachel is my best friend at Blackwell," Max said to the shock of Joyce and Frank.

* * *

Max woke up from another nightmare at two thirty in the morning. It had been three and a half weeks since she changed realities and she was getting sick of it. Every night was the same. Nightmares that haunted her well into the day and images and flashes of the past convinced her that she was still there, in the Dark Room or in the storm.

To say these three and a half weeks had been hectic for her psyche would have been an understatement. She couldn't breathe most of the time. Panic attacks were around every corner and they only went away when she noticed something was different from the other timelines. Like her journal, or Rachel's voice, or Frank's friendly contact in her phone.

Max had been hanging out with Frank a lot these last three and a half weeks. Since that Saturday, she's told him the basics. That she found out that she could rewind time when her "partner" died. That she used the power so much it caused a storm that wiped out Arcadia Bay no matter how much she rewound and tried to find a solution. That Jefferson wouldn't be caught until that Friday when the storm was at its strongest and rips apart nearly everything Arcadia has. And how she had to go back and let her partner in crime and time die to stop the storm. How she got drunk the night of the funeral and went back to before Rachel disappeared and warned them. And how she gets panic attacks every now and then when things seem too much like the other time stream.

All this was said while drinking a beer with him at the beach, eating at Two Whales when Chloe and Rachel weren't there, or smoking a blunt in the RV. She didn't tell him about what Jefferson had done to her- of the many hers throughout those painful realities- and she didn't tell him that she was having nightmares every single night. It wouldn't help either of them in the slightest.

She had also gotten him to swear not to say anything to Rachel, the only other person besides Nathan that she talked to six months ago and shared the future with. He said he understood that she wanted to lay low. To not answer questions about her powers that she never wanted but were sort of grateful for. She couldn't agree more strongly.

Joyce agreed to not say anything about Max being back in Arcadia to Chloe, too. Max wasn't sure if she was going to see Chloe or even let her know that she was in Arcadia. Rachel hasn't said anything about her best friend Max, so she was sure that she was keeping Max around just in case she remembers being in Arcadia six months ago. Which Max was never going to reveal that she remembers.

Rachel Amber... Rachel had been something else during those three and a half weeks. Max could see what her other self and Chloe of the Storm Reality had been talking about. Rachel was practically a chameleon. She talked with everybody, hung out with everybody- hell, even talked like everybody. She had this way of getting inside of someone's head. In everybody's head but Max's.

Max had acted like she always acted. She was shy and nervous, not bothering with Victoria except to give a little back and forth, helping Dana and Juliet with boyfriend problems and the Halloween Party, having tea with Kate while encouraging the girl's drive for drawing, and doing whatever she could to seem normal around Rachel.

It was nearly impossible. Max was either being too shy and nervous or too bold and calm. There was absolutely no middle ground with the blond. On top of that, she was insatiably curious. _'Why were you breathing so slowly behind your camera?'_ She would ask. _'How come you're looking so sad for him? How do you know about my girlfriend?'_

That was usually about the time she texted Frank to call her and then run off to smoke a blunt.

Max paid off Frank by the end of the first two and a half weeks. She had to give it to him quietly, so her parents didn't start calling her when three grand went missing from her bank account all at once. She took it out in intervals, a couple hundred once every two days.

The only thing Max was waiting for was the shoe to drop. If Frank tells Chloe that her debt was paid by someone else and she tells Rachel, then Rachel will immediately go to Max for one reason or other. Mainly because Max said that Frank would get his money when she remembers.

Max remembered everything when she changed the timeline. Her encounter with Nathan, Frank, and Rachel. She was kind of impressed with herself; she didn't die while doing all that fancy time shit. And she scared the fuck out of Nathan.

Calming her breathing, Max looked to the other side of her room to the couch. Sitting on it, almost innocently, was a white convenience store plastic bag. Inside the bag was what was mocking her. The hair dye was practically smirking at her. It was something she swore she'd never do. Because dying her hair wasn't her.

But she needed to. She needed a way to differentiate the Rachel Reality from the others. She knew, no matter what, she wouldn't dye her hair in any other reality. She hadn't gone back far enough to affect her childhood. So no matter what, she wouldn't have changed her hair. Now she had to.

It started in class. In the Photography classroom, obviously. Because of course she had to have a panic attack in the room where the man who took everything from her resided almost seven months ago. But just being in that room wasn't what started the panic attack.

It was the stupid fucking teacher who decided to discuss the daguerreotype process while Max couldn't see him. It was so stupid, really. One mention of the topic that happened right after she got the Rewind and she has a panic attack, going back through the week like she hadn't gone to the Rachel Reality at all.

Everyone yelled if she was okay when she bolted out the door after she yelled out she needed to see the nurse. She felt like she was suffocating. Like she was going to throw up. Like nothing she could ever do would stop Jefferson from yelling at her to stay still.

Then she found herself on the steps of Blackwell, outside and facing the sun. Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she tried to breathe. As she tried to remember where and when she was. As she tried to remember that Chloe wasn't about to get shot in the girls' bathroom right then. As she tried to remember that she wasn't in a Nightmare with Jefferson forcing her to say awful things. That she wasn't lying in a bunker, bound, gagged, and drugged.

That was when she saw David. She saw him walking around with a small smile on his face, nodding to students who waved back. That was something unique to the Rachel Reality. David was loved here. He was still considered weird and paranoid but no one minded since he was the one who caught Jefferson, who had been abducting a lot of girls in Arcadia.

Her hair was in the way, so she brushed it out of her eyes only to hold onto it. Her hair... Her hair is the first thing she saw when she's like that. If she did something, made it longer maybe, then she could differentiate the realities. Remind her that she was still where she was supposed to be.

But Maxine, the Max in the William Reality, had long hair. She couldn't do that. Long hair would set her in another panic attack. Then the answer hit her as she saw an empty familiar truck waiting in the parking lot. She would never _ever_ dye her hair. So if she did, she'd know that she was in the Rachel Reality. She'd know without ever having to take out a journal or look for key signs that might not be there. She wouldn't have to; her own hair would be a sign.

And so she bought hair dye of a color she liked. It was semi permanent and was going to ask Dana to do her hair. For the Halloween Party. Cause she was going. At least, that was her excuse when she asks Dana to do her hair. Dana would love to do it, Max was sure.

That brought her back to the present. Waking up from the Nightmare usually had made her take half an hour to calm down and get her breathing back to normal. So that's what she did. When her breathing calmed down enough, she looked at the bag again. Would it be wrong to bother Dana this early in the morning?

Probably.

Max sighed as she turned over in her bed, rolling onto her front and facing towards the pictures on her wall. There were so many of them. Max had taken the time to look at all of them. Most of them were the same as the other timeline but she had more than a few new ones. A small part of her wondered where she was getting all the film to take those pictures. One of them caught her eye.

It was the parking lot. It was a good shot, in her opinion. Even from far away, she could make out the blue hair of Chloe and the blond of Rachel. They were kissing by the truck, Chloe's arms wrapped around Rachel's waist and the blond's own arms wrapped around Chloe's neck. The sun was behind them, highlighting their golden glow and making halos around their heads. it was like they were angels. Rachel was Chloe's and Chloe was Max's saving grace. She made the hippie who she was now.

Max found the picture nearly two weeks ago, on the floor underneath the desk. It seemed Past Max threw it away when she threw the journal in the closet. But Max didn't have a problem with it. Yes, it hurt to see Chloe with someone else. Yes, it hurt to see Chloe without her. But Chloe was happy. She was with someone that she deserved and not a mass murderer who only let her die in the end. So Max put the picture up there, to commemorate Chloe in getting a better life without Max in it. She deserved it.

Max wasn't aware she even fell asleep until her eyes blinked and it was daytime. The sun shone through her window, showering Lisa with its yellow haze. Max blinked a couple times, letting her eyes adjust to the sudden light she was sure wasn't there a second ago. But it was there, and it was Thursday, which meant that school was still in session. Even though it was Halloween.

The time traveler went through her morning routine. Water Lisa, grab a towel and her toiletries, and go take a shower. She met Dana in the hallway to the bathroom. It was as good a time as any to see what Dana would say.

"Dana," Max called quietly as to not wake anyone else who might be sleeping. The cheerleader turned to her and Max smiled in return for the smile she was given.

"What's up, Max?" Dana asked. "And thanks for helping me out with the Halloween decorations. It's going to look awesome."

"Yeah, it is," Max agreed. "That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about. I wanted to do something for my costume. But I need your help."

"What is it?" Dana asked. Max looked to the floor and mumbled something but Dana didn't hear it. "Sorry, what was that Max?"

"I asked if you could help me dye my hair," Max said a little louder but still quiet. Dana stared at her with wide eyes, obviously shocked. Until it broke out into a big grin.

"Of course I'll help you!" Dana squealed. "Oh, this will be so fun!"

"Thanks, Dana," Max said gratefully.

"No problem, Max," she said. "Just tell me when and we'll get that done."

"I was thinking after school?" Max asked. "I have the stuff in my room but I'd rather wait until the party is actually going on to wear it."

"No sweat," Dana said, doing her best Trevor impersonation. She and Trevor started dating since Logan dumped her with the baby she was currently carrying. Something Dana confided in her after Max caught her crying in the bathroom alone. "I'll text you, ya?"

"Yeah," Max agreed and then she started walking to the bathroom while Dana started walking to her own room.

Max wished she stayed to talk to Dana longer the second she opened the bathroom door. Just as she did, Rachel came out of a shower stall wearing nothing... That was it. Nothing. She was completely in the nude.

As much as Max hated it, her eyes stayed on the girl's nude form a moment longer than she wanted. She saw the drops of water run down her flesh and the curves of her body. The damp blond hair clinging to her skin as it fell around her chest. And then Max's eyes immediately lowered to the floor.

"Max!" Rachel cried as she spotted the blushing hippie staring at the floor. "Sorry! I didn't know anybody was up yet!"

"T-that's o-okay," Max stuttered. "Per-Perfectly reason-reasonable to-uh-to think that."

"Sorry, Max!" Rachel said as she ran out of the bathroom in a towel and into her dorm room. Max let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and walked to the mirror. The images that assaulted her mind were horrible and definitely unwanted. Weren't they?

Max took a shower, pushing away the images of Rachel, and thought about what she would do that day. Classes, obviously, but after that was Dana. After that, she wouldn't go to the Halloween party. Max didn't think she could go to any party after the last party she went to. Maybe spend the night with Frank, binge out on candy and some weed.

Max was still confused about their friendship. Yes, it was platonic. No, it was not at all in any range of sense of fucking normal. Max didn't know whether the drug dealer felt sorry for her or what, but the free weed and beer was getting her on edge. It was different, yes, a good way to differentiate the other realities, but it still made no fucking sense. She'd have to ask him.

When Max made it safely to her room, she picked up her phone and clicked on Frank's contact number.

'Hey,' she typed. 'What are you doing for Halloween? I don't feel like going to the Blackwell party. Even if I did help set it up.'

With that sent, she dropped her towel and looked for something to wear. While she searched through her closet, she saw herself in the mirror. 'I guess it's better that she picked Rachel, huh Max?' She thought to herself.

She wasn't very... feminine. She barely had any curves and she wasn't as full as Rachel was. Compared to Max, Rachel might as well have been a runway model someone sees one TV. Max's freckles were everywhere, her lips were thin, her hair was sort of just there, and she was small in both aspects of the word. 'Chloe probably would have disappointed,' Max thought to herself.

Then she shook her head and returned to her closet. There was no need to think about that. Not anymore. That was never going to happen and it only pained her to think about it. So she had to stop.

Max pulled out some clothes and put them on. Ripped jeans, a long horn skull, and her classic hoodie looked good on her. She remembered how Chloe looked at her when she was dressed in Rachel's clothes. How she immediately dared Max to kiss her. It made Max smile briefly before it disappeared.

"That never happened," she said to the girl in the mirror. "It won't do you any good to keep thinking about it."

She was stopped from her self berating when her phone chimed. She had some time before her classes started so it must have been a text. She was proven right when she saw that both Frank and Rachel texted her. Max didn't know how to feel about that. Her two best friends (she guessed) used to go out, one was a drug dealer she wanted nothing to do with in the other timeline and the other one was a dead girl that was currently in a relationship with the girl Max loves. Talk about a soap opera.

'Gotta sell some low-grade shit to some of your buddies,' Frank's text said. 'But after that I'm free. You in to some blazing?'

Max quickly typed in an agreement and told him that she'd meet him at the beach around nine, then turned to the one from Rachel.

'Max, I'm so sorry,' it read. 'I hope I didn't make things weird between us.'

'No problem,' Max texted back. 'Don't worry about it. You didn't know anyone was awake. But keep the towel in the stall with you next time. Kay?'

Rachel texted back not a minute later. 'Will do,' it read. 'Sorry again.'

'Apology accepted,' Max wrote back then tossed it on her bed. She had some time before classes, so what should she do?

Her gaze briefly wandered to the camera on her desk, right next to her computer. She had to use the camera a few times these last three and a half weeks and each time made her breathing quicken irregularly. She sometimes had to force herself to calm down, most of the time closing her eyes and doing some breathing exercises she found online. Max could always try to find something to take a picture of...

Max shook her head, grabbed the camera, her phone, and her bag, and made her way out of the dorms. She briefly saw Victoria and Rachel glaring at each other from across the hall but didn't bother stopping to see what the problem was now. They were always at each others throats, even though they were so similar. A random thought made its way into Max's head. _If Victoria and I are alike, what does that make Rachel and I?_

"Hey, Kate!" Max greeted once she was clear of the dorm building. Kate seemed to have the same idea as Max and was lining up a shot in her camera's viewfinder. It was of the Tobanga. Max didn't see what Kate saw, being an atheist or whatever believed that an evil universe was out to get her and take away her happiness, but was happy that Kate was smiling and living out her life. It was another sign to differentiate this reality from the others. It always helped with the panic attacks during the classes she had with the Christian.

"Hey, Max." Kate said as she finally snapped her picture. She looked at the picture displayed on the screen and smiled happily at it. Then she turned to the hippie. "What are you dong this fine morning?"

"You know," Max said with a shrug of her shoulders and a wave of her camera. "I was fixing to get a picture or two before classes started. You?"

"I had the same idea," Kate said. "I was taking a picture of the Tobanga." She gestured to the monument. Max had no idea who put there but she had to give whoever it was points for the creepiness factor.

"Why?" Max asked. "It's just so very creepy." Fully remembering that she did the exact same thing during that week.

"I know it's a bit creepy but there's something about it..." Kate trailed off and Max realized what she was saying.

"Like it has a mystic mystery," Max finished for her. "Like it might have the answers of the Universe."

Kate nodded still staring at the Tobanga, unaware of Max's double entendre for the universe. Max wished the Tobanga held answers. If only it were that easy...

"Are you going to the Halloween party?" Kate asked, snapping Max away from whatever staring contest she might have been having with the Tobanga.

"Why? Are you?" Max asked. If Kate went to a party... Maybe it was best that she wasn't going to be there. Max could only hope that nothing happened to Kate.

"Nah," the Christian answered. "Halloween isn't my cup of tea. Or parties. I went to the last one but... I didn't like it that much. So I'm going to curl up in my dorm and watch a Christmas movie instead."

"The greatest plan if I've ever heard one, Kate," Max told her while smiling. Kate wouldn't be going to the party. 'Good,' Max thought.

"Are you going?" Kate asked.

Max shook her head. "No," she said. "Parties make me nervous so I'm going to hang out with a friend tonight. But don't tell Dana that I'm not going. She'd be so disappointed if she found out I helped with decorations but didn't bother going."

Kate smiled. "I won't," she promised.

Max spent the rest of the morning walking the campus, taking special care to avoid the parking lot in case Chloe was waiting for Rachel. Rachel would often skip two times a week yet still maintain one of the best GPA's in the entire school. Like Victoria.

Max ended up taking a picture of the school that looked like it belonged in a brochure. Max sighed. She had never been one of those photographers. The ones that set everything up to how they want it. She had always been the photographer that let things happen and then capture it in memory. Max cringed when she heard Jefferson's voice in her head, yelling at her to stay still.

Max was right about Rachel skipping class when the bell rang and the blond wasn't there. She was either on time or not there at all. Besides the time they met, if Past Max's journal was right. Max sighed and turned her attention to Ms. Grant. Warren was next to her, listening as though his life depended on it and Max's mind went out the window, half listening and half wishing she could listen to some music.

* * *

Max started laughing when Frank's jaw dropped.

It was a couple hours after Dana had done her hair and even Max had to say, she looked good in red. The candy apple color was bright and vibrant, something she'd never do normally. But she guessed that this was the new normal.

"You know," she said as she bypassed him and into the RV. "This is the third time I've seen you speechless since I got back."

The first time was at the Two Whales Diner, when she sat down in his booth and made herself known to him for the first time. The second time was when she confessed that she could Rewind. This seemed to be the third time.

"You keep surprising me, kid," he said as he shut the door behind her and sat at the table. "Red hair?"

"Helps with the panic attacks," she said as she absentmindedly twirled her newly colored hair in between her fingers. The candy apple red was bright and vibrant, just like the reality she was in and the opposite of her dreams. It seemed perfect.

"Right," he scoffed. "I think you've just been waiting to do that to make me surprised."

"Yes, cause my life revolves around keeping you on your toes," Max said sarcastically back at him.

"I knew it," he said as he snapped his fingers. "You almost got me."

Pompidou barked and nuzzled into Max's side as she sat down across from Frank. Max had spent a lot of time petting the dog Frank saved a kept. She might even love the dog. She had fed it, petted it, and rubbed its belly. She saved the dog when she broke into Frank's RV during that week. Max was pretty sure she loved the dog now. Especially as he whined whenever she left.

Frank and Max talked as the night went by. Max had never tried any kind of drug before the Rachel Reality but she was having a panic attack and Frank told her to take a puff. She did without thinking but was too relaxed to be mad or upset. It helped her. And smoking helped her think, as weird as that sounded. It let her forget the past, if only for a little while, and she was okay with that. For as long as it lasted.

Max drank her second beer as Frank drank his fourth. They passed around a joint and laughed the night away. Max forgot how many times she almost, did, or tried to kill Frank in the other realities. She forgot about how many times he almost, did, or tried to kill her and Chloe. They were just two people, two friends, having a blast during Halloween.

Hours passed. Max breathed in a sigh as she put her feet up on the dashboard. She was in the passenger seat of the RV, Pompidou's head in her lap and Frank in the driver's seat across from her. He was finishing chuckling, took a puff, and then handed it to her.

"You know," Max said. She paused and took a lung full of the joint between her fingers. She continued when she blew it out. "In the other reality, I wondered what it would be like to just take this thing and drive. How the road would be..."

"It's pretty amazing," Frank told her. "A lot of hours on the road, sure, but that's the appeal of it. Just you and the road."

"And whatever drugs you got with you at the time?" Max teased. Frank let out a gruff 'Ha' and took his turn on the joint.

Max closed her eyes for a second when her phone beeped. Without a second though, she pulled it out and her eyes filled with tears as soon as she looked at the screen.

"What's wrong?" Frank asked her. Max turned to him, wiping away her tears.

"Nothing," she said as she showed him the calendar notification that popped up on her phone. "It's midnight. I made it through October. After everything, I'm done with October 2013."


	3. Episode One: Tachypsychia (Part Three)

**Part Three: Butterflies**

Chloe Price stumbled into a dorm room, her girlfriend hanging off of her and a blunt in her hand. The Halloween party was awesome, booze and low-grade shit being passed around like candy. And the actual candy! It was the good candy. Hershey's, Kit Kats, Snickers, that sort of shit.

But now it was past midnight and they needed some sleep. Rachel collapsed onto her bed, giggling as Chloe attempted to crawl onto the bed on her knees seductively. Chloe took another hit and started laughing with her.

And that's where Chloe's memory stopped. The next thing she knows are the bright rays of sunshine, the note left from Rachel on the bedside table, and the talking bird outside of the dorm window.

"Are you up yet?" The bird asked impatiently. "I've been trying to get you up for the last thirty minutes. Why They want you is beyond me but you've been called. Now are you going to go or what?"

Head still groggy, Chloe sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed her head with her hands tiredly. The taking bird was starting to get on her nerves. He just wouldn't shut up. He was yelling, too, so that wasn't helping with her headache.

"Will you shut up for a second?" Chloe snapped on the bird.

The robin was starting to get on her nerves. A week ago, Chloe woke up to several birds talking out of their ass and crowding around her window. All about some kind of meeting. At first, Chloe thought she was going crazy. That changed when they told Chloe things she couldn't know. Where the cameras in her house were, for example. Where Rachel was at that moment. Things like that.

Ever since then, some important person or thing has sent a bird to her window every morning to get her to meet them. Something she wasn't at all keen to do. If the way the birds talked about them were any indication, these things that wanted a meeting with her were powerful muchachos. And someone(s) that Chloe did not want to meet. Ever.

"Are you going to meet Them?" The bird snapped back. This was the bird that Chloe hated the most. Of the three times that the robin has been there to wake Chloe up, the bird has done nothing but been a pain in her ass.

"Who are these guys?" Chloe asked. "I only know what I hear from everyone else. I don't even know who They are, much less what they want from me."

"Do you think it's a coincidence that you can suddenly hear us?" The bird asked. "It isn't. You can feel it, can't you? The change in the air?"

Chloe looked down at the floor. In truth, she had felt something a couple weeks ago. She was just chilling, thinking of a way to get Frank his money back, when shivers suddenly wracked her body. It felt like she was being stuffed into a toaster in a flooded bathtub while all the air in her lungs were being forcibly pushed out of her lungs with a semi.

It scared her at first but was pushed out of her mind as the days went by. Then the week came and the birds reminded her of it. Reminded her that they felt it, too. Something had happened and their bosses wanted to see her.

But she didn't want to see them. She didn't want to see the ones that controlled animals everywhere. The deer, the raccoons, the birds, hell, everything. And Chloe could hear everything. The deer that came to her. The wolf that threatened her. The mouse that hid in her house.

"You know this is hella weird, right?" Chloe questioned the bird. "I'm not going to see whoever you work for."

"We don't 'work' for Them," the bird told her. "We respect them enough. They're old and have powers. They know things that they shouldn't. And They want to see you."

"That makes me feel so much better," Chloe grumbled. "Look, I don't want to see these powerful people. I don't want to see whoever wants to see me. They can leave me alone."

"You don't seem to understand," the robin said. "They want to see _you._ You, Ms. Delinquent Punk. Not anyone else but you. And They have a lot of knowledge of things that will, should, and have happened. I've seen it. Which is why you should see Them."

"No," Chloe said again. She shook her head. "No, I'm not seeing them. They can go to hell."

The bird seemed to regard her for a second. She didn't know his name and she didn't care. She wanted to him to leave her alone. That was all she wanted. She was happy. For the last six months, since she and Rachel got together, she was happy. Chloe ended up smiling a lot and she didn't quite want to leave Arcadia as much as she wanted to earlier.

"Even if they could tell you about Max Caulfield?"

Chloe's eyes snapped to the robin's beady ones. For a second, it felt like time slowed but the feeling was gone as soon as it appeared. Chloe's anger flared inside her as her eyes narrowed at the bird.

"What the hell do you want with Max?" Chloe demanded. The robin only stared at her, unimpressed by her anger.

"My, my," the bird cooed. "Even after all these years, you're still trying to defend her. Though, I doubt she needs it anymore if what They say are true. In that case, we might as well bow before her."

"The hell does that mean?" Chloe asked.

"You know exactly what that means," the robin told her. "They say you were there in the junkyard that day. That you saw what happened. Some of it, anyway."

Chloe's face turned a tinge of pink from anger. Yes, she was there that day. She was there when Max suddenly turned up in American Rust and was talking with Rachel. Chloe remembered it clearly.

 _The one thing Chloe didn't like about American Rust was that there wasn't a bathroom. There no toilets and there was no toilet paper. But there was a patch of woods nearby her and Rachel's shack._

 _It was when she was done that she heard the scream. The scream was loud and full of pain and Chloe could only think it was Rachel. She ran as fast as she could, tripping over a root or two on the way there. But it wasn't Rachel that Chloe saw screaming when she broke from the treeline. It was a girl. Not just any girl, but Max Caulfield._

 _Chloe hadn't seen her childhood best friend in just about five years, Max having left the week of her father's funeral. She didn't remember much about that week, every memory passing by in a blur, but she did remember that she and Max didn't leave on good terms. Chloe felt anger rise up in her gut. What the hell was Max of all people doing in her place? How did she even know where to find American Rust?_

 _The anger soon turned to jealousy when Rachel went up and cupped Max's face in her hands. Did they know each other? Why? How? Chloe realized that Max and Rachel were talking and quieted her heavy breathing to hear them._

 _"Are you okay?" Rachel asked her._

 _"I will be," Max answered. "But you need to stay away from Jefferson until he's arrested. Or dead."_

 _What? Why would Rachel's teacher be arrested? Why did Max think he would be dead?_

 _"I didn't get your name," Rachel said. So they didn't know each other? Chloe knew Rachel was a bit touchy with people she like but she didn't know Max so what gives?_

 _"It's Max," the girl who disappeared said._

 _"Max Caulfield?" Rachel sounded surprised. Chloe didn't blame her. As far as she knew, Max bailed on Chloe and forgot about her._

 _Max chuckled. "I take it Chloe has been bitching about me to you?" Chloe saw Rachel slowly nod. "It's good she had a friend like you when I couldn't be there. Or won't be there... I can't tell you how much I owe you for being with her. She..."_

 _Chloe's hearing got way out of control when she started to hear her own blood pound in her ears. Max owed Rachel? How did she even_ know _about Rachel? Actually, how long had she been back in Arcadia Bay?_

 _The bluenette's thought process turned full circle when she thought, 'Max didn't forget about me.' It was an odd euphoria that invaded Chloe's chest and spread throughout her limbs. It of course brought questions of why Max couldn't have messaged her if she still remembered her, but right then she couldn't care. Max... Max was back in Arcadia and somehow finding out everything about her life. Maybe her mom had something to do with it?_

 _Chloe's thoughts must have taken over for longer than she thought because when she turned to listen to Max and Rachel's conversation, they were already finishing up. Chloe wanted to jump out there and talk to the two, just like she always dreamed, but she didn't. She held back as Max's nose started bleeding and simply listened._

 _"I can't stay here." Max's statement nearly caused Chloe's heart to break. She wasn't staying? Then what was the point of coming there in the first place? To mock Chloe? To meet Rachel? What was Max's end goal?_

 _"It was nice to finally meet you, Rachel... And thank you for being there."_

 _Chloe's brain must have short circuited because one moment Max was standing there, smiling at Rachel with a smile that was so totally Max and the next she was gone. Into thin air. Like she never existed._

 _Two weeks later, Chloe would ask Rachel about that incident in the Junkyard only to find that Rachel had no idea what she was talking about. That nothing happened when she went to use the bathroom. And Chloe couldn't tell if Rachel was lying or not. She never figured it out, because Rachel kissed her three days later, putting the thoughts of the hallucination of the Max Caulfield incident out of her mind._

"That was a fucking hallucination," Chloe snarled at the robin. "That was my imagination playing my biggest wish against me. That was the drugs."

"Oh, but it wasn't," the robin sneered. "They know a lot more about your precious Max Caulfield. In fact, I think they're even scared of her. All of us probably should be..."

"What the hell are you playing at?" Chloe asked. The robin wasn't making any sense anymore. What the hell was his angle?

"What if They could tell you where Max was?" The robin asked as Chloe shut up. "What if they could tell you what really happened that day? What if I told you that Max Caulfield was in Arcadia Bay right now and only They could find her?"

Chloe stood up and walked to the window. "You better not be fucking lying to me or I will fry you and serve you to the homeless lady behind Two Whales."

The robin bristled, most likely hearing the truth in Chloe's voice, but didn't back down from behind the glass window.

"I'm not lying to you," the robin said. "They wouldn't like that. We pride ourselves on being better than you humans."

Chloe interrupted. "I don't care about your goddamn philosophies," she snarled. "Are you lying to me about Max."

The robin stared at her in the eyes, holding her eye contact for a moment before replying. "No."

Chloe sighed and rubbed her eyes tiredly. Max was in Arcadia Bay? Her hallucination was real? It was starting to give her a headache. Why the hell did They keep an eye on Max? Why would they be afraid of her?

"Fine," Chloe resigned. "Take me to them. But if they go back on their deal, I'll leave and make sure I torch them to the ground."

"I'm sure that They find that reasonable," the robin replied. "But would you like to get dressed first?"

Chloe looked down, just realizing that she was only in a bra and jeans. Chloe only glared at the bird before she turned and looked for her shirt. It was on the floor, discarded by a bra that wasn't Chloe's. For some reason, this colored the punk's cheeks.

Her and Rachel haven't gone all the way. It had been six months and Rachel teased her relentlessly, but Chloe felt something in her gut. She just wasn't ready yet. After a conversation with Rachel, they both agreed they weren't ready to take the next step just after a few months of dating. Even after they had been friends for a few years.

"Meet me outside," the robin said and then he took off from the his perch outside the window.

Chloe grumbled about a bossy bird and her brain being crazy before slipping on her shirt and walking out of the dorm. There was no one in the dorm that time of day so Chloe felt it was safe to be seen on school campus. She was technically still expelled but David gave her a break seeing as Rachel was going to be Jeffer-shit's next victim before he was caught. All she had to do is not get caught by principal Wells.

Chloe read the note left by Rachel before she left the dorm room. It simply said that her friend wasn't picking up her phone and that she was worried. She and another were going to go look for her around campus and to not worry. That Rachel would call when they found her and when things returned to normal.

The robin met her outside just like he said. The air was chilled and it felt sort of sluggish but it didn't matter to Chloe or the bird. They stared at each other for a second, Chloe finally realizing how crazy she was. Who the fuck can talk to animals and have them take that person to a secret council of animals that have powers?

Yep, she was fucking insane in the brain.

"So where do we go?" Chloe asked.

"This way," the robin replied. He then flew over to the Tobanga and landed on it. "It's through the woods."

"Of course it is," Chloe muttered. Why not? Secret super powerful animal council taking home in the woods behind Blackwell? Makes sense.

The walk was quiet. Neither the robin or Chloe talked at all other than to give and confirm directions to the powerful people that wanted to meet Chloe. She was still nervous beyond anything she could feel. Even introducing Rachel as her girlfriend to Joyce. That was an embarrassing day.

Soon the woods grew close together and the sun disappeared behind clouds of leaves and trunks. The trees were taller than any trees Chloe had seen in Arcadia. It was almost separate from the Arcadia she knew. It still smelled like Arcadia- that fish smell that seemed to permeate the air- but it was a fresher smell than what she was used to.

The woods then opened to an enclave filled with hundreds of shining green and blue fluttering lights. It took Chloe a second to realize that they weren't lights; they were butterflies. Thousands of them all hanging onto trees, fluttering their glowing wings. It was... breathtaking.

"Hello, Chloe Price." The voice made Chloe flinch and look around frantically. But there was no one, person wise or animal wise, around her. Even the robin was gone. All that was left was the butterflies, fluttering in sync.

"Please tell me that thousands of butterflies aren't talking to me at the same time, creepy style." Her plea went unheeded. Instead, hundreds of butterflies flew off their perches and flew in a circle. When the flurry of glowing wings stopped, there was the figure of a person made up of butterflies, glowing blue with two butterfly wing eyes glowing green.

"We are glad you came," the butter-man said in the same voice that was still echoing around her from the other thousand butterflies. "We were afraid that you wouldn't come, given your stubborn pasts."

"Yeah, well," Chloe muttered, "can you blame me? I can suddenly talk to animals and this powerful organization that every animal listens to wanted to see me. Not something I'd be too keen on visiting or listening to."

"We understand that you came here for a reason," the butter-man said.

"The robin promised me that you would know where my friend Max Caulfield-"

"Do not say that name here!" The butter-man suddenly shouted, making the bluenette cringe. The butter-man seemed to realize that he shouted and his voice once again became soft. "We are sorry. It's just... _She_ is not welcome here, despite what she's done. Why the Almighty had to choose her, we don't know. Why the Almighty decided to bestow that curse on anyone is beyond our knowledge."

"Can I just say that I have no idea what the hell you're talking about," Chloe said. "What I do know is that you can tell me where M- she, is. That's all I came here for. If you have something else to say, you can save it for later. Just tell me where she is."

"I'm afraid we can't tell you exactly where she is," the butter-man said sorrowfully. "We can tell you that she is closer than you think. The answer is through the last pieces of your heart. I'm sorry we cannot do more without drawing attention to ourselves from her. Almighty knows how much she hates us already."

"Wha-... That made no fucking sense!" Chloe yelled.

"You wanted an answer and you got one," the butter-man told her. "We are sorry if it is not to your liking but given what this time stream is and how it is about to go, we cannot give you anymore information on the whereabouts of your gir-... friend."

"Did you say time stream?" Chloe asked. She may have been both a punk and a delinquent, but science was still her jam. She knew all about chaos theory and time travel. Getting interested in Doctor Who would do that to a science nerd.

"Yes," they/he answered. "Onto why we wanted to meet you here. We cannot expunge the details without drawing attention from her, but we can say that this is not the original time stream created by the Almighty. That was overwritten by this one through ways we cannot divulge to you just yet. There are consequences to messing with time and one of those consequences were pushed onto you."

"What do you mean?" Chloe asked. "What consequences? My life has been great."

"Yes," the butter-man said dryly. "We know. But talking to us and the other animals are one of the consequences. You now have powers no human should have. It could help you but on the other hand... it could be a curse to hear the beings around you. You are not the only one with these consequences, but you are the only one we can help at this moment. Or probably ever."

"What's so special about me?" Chloe asked. "Why did I get these consequences?"

"Because of reasons we cannot tell you about just yet," butter-man answered. "We can tell you that others will have similar consequences to yours."

"They can talk to animals, too?" Chloe asked but butter-man shook his head.

"No, they will have a different set of consequences unique to their personality. The ultimate punishment." The butter-man seemed really sad that people were getting these consequences.

"Why do I have to find them?" Chloe asked. "Can't you?"

"We could," the butter-man admitted. "But there are many dangers out there for us. She doesn't like us and we can't risk being seen by her. She has abilities even beyond our own."

"She... You mean Max?"

The butter-man recoiled and disappeared into hundreds of individual butterflies. "Do not say that name!"

"Okay! Goddamn!" Chloe yelled. "Sorry!"

"Leave!" And Chloe did just that. It was only after she was back in the parking lot of Blackwell did she realize that the butterflies never answered her question: Did they mean Max? Shaking her head, she drove off the Blackwell campus. Her head was too busy with thoughts she barely noticed Frank's RV pulling up into the parking lot just as she left.

* * *

"You gotta wake up, kid."

Franks' voice echoed through her head, cutting through the screams of the people she's killed. Of her pleading as Jefferson yelled at her to stay still as his hands roamed her drugged body. Cutting through the fire and the rain that decimated the town.

Her blue eyes snapped open to meet Frank's brown ones. His were filled with concern though it was hidden. It was more disguised as curiosity. After that, she saw red strands of hair. Her hair. The hair that she only had in the Rachel Reality. The hair that told her that she was still there, in the reality she chose. In the reality she loved.

"Sorry." Her voice was croaky and her throat was dry. Frank immediately leaned back on the arm rest of the driver's seat.

"Don't be," he told her. "Nightmares are a bitch. How long has this been going on?"

Max sighed. If someone had told her that she would be best friends with Frank in a reality that had Rachel alive and kicking, even when she had her powers, she would have called them crazy. Would have called the cops or shipped them out to sea tied to the mast of a boat; viking style. But now it wasn't crazy, just not really the new norm yet.

"Since I got here," Max said. "All the shit I went through... You have no idea how many times I fucked with time to get here. The storm... the deaths... Jefferson..."

"You didn't tell me you were one of Jefferson's victims," Frank said and Max cursed herself for slipping up. She didn't tell him? Who was it that she told? Chloe... She told Chloe in the Storm Reality. That was it.

"Four times," Max whispered. "I was in that sick fuck's dark room four times. The first time I went in there, I went back through a picture twice to try to escape or be more awake to use my powers. It didn't work until the third time. When I finally got rid of him before that week even started, I went to San Francisco for that photography project with Principal Wells. But the storm still came and wiped Arcadia out. So I went back and destroyed the picture that would take me out of Arcadia. But I didn't plan on autopilot and I created a new timeline and never got Jefferson arrested. I woke up in his bunker for a final time."

"Did... Did he..." Frank struggled with the question but Max knew exactly what he was asking.

"I... I have no idea," she answered. "Some memories come to me, some don't. I fucked around with time so much that I'm not sure if it's just the Nightmare Place that's fucking with me or actual memories."

"Well, shit, Max," Frank said. "How the fuck do you even handle this?"

"Signs that I'm not there anymore," Max said with a small smile. "My red hair, Rachel's voice, Kate's smile, my journal. 'Course, the weed helps with any panic attacks I might have."

That got a small smile out of Frank. Pompidou came up, most likely feeling the horrible and tense atmosphere. The adorable dog nuzzled into Max's side and whined. She pet him rhythmically, stroking his head like it was the softest thing in the world.

"I have a hard time dealing with this, Frank," Max said quietly. "I'm not like Chloe or Rachel who walk away laughing. I'm still dealing with the shit I did. To Kate... to Victoria... to you... I get so confused sometimes, it's like I'm seeing everything the way it was and not the way it is.

"It hurts, Frank," she admitted. "Seeing everyone happy and living. Not a month ago I saw this town crumble in front of my eyes. I see these people that were dead alive again, and I can't help but remember how they died. To me, they'll be the people I killed and didn't think twice about when I was trying to save my partner and bring her back. When I let the town be obliterated twice. I let the town die twice. When I went to Francisco and again when I got out of the Dark Room for the last time.

"I watched them die and did nothing because I was too focused on saving someone who I ended up having to let go anyway." Tears prickled her eyes as she stared into Frank's. "There are times when I even wonder why I'm here. Why I just don't put a bullet in my brain and be done with everything."

Frank roughly grabbed her shoulders. "Don't you dare say that," he ordered her. "This world would not be better off without you, Caulfield. Sure, you fucked up. A lot, by the sounds of it, but the important thing is that you made it right. You saved this town. You saved everyone here. I would be guilty of Rachel's murder and Kate would have jumped off that roof. You're partner is still alive, right? You helped her. Hell, you got me sharing my weed with a freak with time powers."

Max nodded weakly and brushed the tears that formed in her eyes away.

"Sorry," she said again. She didn't mean it.

"Don't be," he said. "We've all been there. The point is to survive it. To get stronger because of it."

"You sound like a self help book," Max teased lightly, trying to take Frank's advice. Frank raised an eyebrow.

"And how would you know if you haven't read any?" He shot back. This colored Max's cheeks, knowing she was caught. She had read a self help book once when she was little. It was in a doctor's office and it helped her get out of her comfort zone. Which led her to Chloe.

Max's eyes strayed to the clock on the dashboard, seeing the time. "Shit!" She yelled. "I'm going to be late!"

"You better get going," he told her. "And Max." She paused just as she turned the handle to the RV door to look back at him. "Don't ever think it would be better for you to be gone. Most of this town would be dead without you and Jefferson wouldn't be behind bars. Live your life now. You deserve some peace."

Max gave him a nod as she tried to look like she was taking what he was saying to heart, and walked out of the RV and into the fresh sunlight that somehow didn't blind her at eight something in the morning. There wasn't anyone in the parking lot that Max could see so she waved at Frank as she climbed the steps and he left the parking lot.

That's when Kate appeared out of nowhere.

"Max!" Kate yelled as she pulled Max in for a hug. She held on impossibly tight and Max couldn't help but hold her just as tight. The last time they were hugging like this, it was raining and Kate was on the girl dormitory room.

"Kate?" Max asked as she pulled away from the hug, the unpleasant memory clinging to her skin like damp clothes. "What's up? Are you alright?"

"I should be asking you the same thing!" Kate retorted. "You weren't answering your phone all morning and then you come out of Frank's RV? Are you hurt? Did he hurt you?"

"What? No!" Max laughed. "Frank wouldn't hurt me. We're friends. And I'm so sorry for not answering; I totally passed out last night and I didn't mean to. I'm sorry for scaring you."

Kate breathed a sigh. "Just don't do that again, Max. Rachel and I were really worried."

Max went wide-eyed and looked around. "Is Rachel here?" Max asked. Seeing Kate's face, Max came up with a lie on the spot. "Rachel and Frank used to go out. I don't want her finding out I'm friends with both her and Frank. She'll totally overreact and think I'm banging him."

"Are you?" Kate asked boldly. Max sputtered.

"What? No! I don't even swing for that team-" Max covered her mouth with her hands, her eyes wide an completely mortified that she just admitted that to Kate, of all people, before anyone else. Even her own parents.

Kate, to her credit, only had slightly wide eyes. Her mouth was opening and closing like a fish. There were a few seconds of silence that made it torturous for Max. This was the moment she either lost her friend and sign or gained an even stronger bond with her friend.

"You're... You're a lesbian?" Kate asked, her voice seeming small yet to Max it was like a shout.

"Yes..." It came out like a question. Kate's neutral face didn't assure what she would do or what she would say.

"I... I don't really know what to say to that," Kate finally said. "Your so nice but now I'm afraid you're trying to woo me."

Max started laughing. She couldn't help it. The laugh bubbled up in her throat and spewed out of her mouth like no one's business. Her... try to woo... Kate? It was hilarious. Not only because Max was dealing with a lot of shit right then, but that Kate was thinking that.

"No, Kate," Max assured once she'd calmed down. "You're my friend, not my target. Don't worry. I know how much you're into God... If you want to stop being my friend, that's completely understandable-"

"Of course I don't want to stop being your friend!" Kate yelled urgently as she took Max's hands. "Max, you are one of the best people I know. If I can't look past this, what kind of person would I be?"

Max's feelings swelled up into her chest and poured out. She hugged Kate tight, trying to keep the tears at bay. Not because her friend accepted her for who she was, but because she needed to be hugged. Kate was in the hospital when the storm hit and Max wasn't sure if she survived. But she needed to feel the good Kate. The one that Max couldn't imagine ever considering suicide. The one Max didn't save on that roof top. The one that reminded Max that she didn't want to put a bullet in her brain to stop the nightmares and panic attacks and everything that came with it.

"Thank you, Kate," Max whispered. Kate responded by hugging her a little tighter and whispering a 'You're welcome' back.

When they pulled apart, Kate's eyes went wide once again as she took in Max's hair.

"Max, you dyed your hair!" She exclaimed. Max smiled.

"Yeah, do you like it?" Max asked. "I thought about trying something different and well, this was the only thing I could think of."

"It looks great," Kate said, still smiling. "It definitely seems like a 'Max' thing."

"Thanks, Kate," Max said. "We're going to be late if we don't get a move on. And I need to change my clothes."

Kate nodded. "I'll text Rachel that I found you and you're heading to the dorms," she said as she took out her phone. "And don't worry, I'll keep the whole 'Friends with the Local Drug Dealer' and the 'Lesbian' thing to myself."

Max smiled gratefully. "Thank you, Kate."

They walked together in silence for a while, Kate going inside the main building of Blackwell and Max continuing on to the dorm rooms. The campus was practically a ghost town. For a second, Max swore she saw a shadow in front of the sun, but it was gone as soon as she turned to get a better look. She hated eclipses.

Rachel was waiting for her in her room. It was odd, to see the blond waiting for her on Max's bed. Simply sitting there, looking at her phone like she belonged there. Max immediately went uneasy at the thought of Rachel being in Max's room alone. The bag filled with the Rachel Investigation was still in the closet, buried underneath clothes, and the pictures of her and Chloe during that week were underneath her bed like always.

It was second nature to Max now. A flight or fight response was easy enough to discern in her head. There were parts of her that knew the right angle to push Rachel out the window. There were other parts that knew how to break through the door to run more efficiently. Like instinct. An instinct to flee or fight. In the back of Max's head, she was a little concerned how she knew all of this.

Even though it abhorred her, Max felt her eyes rake over Rachel's form as the blonde turned to her. It was barely a full day before that she saw the same blond naked and wet. The droplets on her skin. The way her hair clung to her skin and breasts. And then she shook her head to get rid of the thoughts.

"Hey..." Max said uneasily. Rachel was just looking at her, taking her in with narrowed eyes. Her eyes widened at Max's hair but narrowed again at Max's attire. "What's going on?"

"Where were you?" Rachel asked. Max was going to answer but apparently the question was rhetorical. "Do you know how worried I've been? You don't even show up to the party, you disappear for the entire night, and then you don't even answer mine or Kate's phone calls or texts?"

"I admit that I majorly screwed up," Max said. "I fell asleep and I should have at least checked on the party with you guys."

"What were you doing, Max?" Rachel asked. "What was so important that you ditched all your friends and disappeared for the night?"

"I was with a friend..." Max quietly protested. "I should have at least checked in on you guys, and I can't tell you how sorry I am for that. I'm a crappy friend. I fell asleep."

"'With a friend' she says," Rachel scoffed. "Max, you can't just reappear, give some crappy apology, and expect everyone to be okay with it. Who were you hanging out with?"

"Just a friend, Rachel," Max said. There was no fucking way in hell that she was going to tell Rachel that she disappeared with Frank Bowers. Not that she was ashamed of their friendship, she'd already told Kate, but Rachel would go ballistic and figure out that 'Max, Max' was back.

"Max..." Rachel warned but Max only bristled.

"It was no one. Alright?" Her voice came out a little harsh but it was enough for Rachel to realize that she clearly didn't want to talk about it.

"Fine," Rachel said. "But we're having a sleepover tonight. I am not letting you out of my sight at all today."

Max nodded. "Sounds fair."

There was tangible silence between them until Rachel suddenly said, "I like your hair."

Max took a strand of her hair in her fingers. The red glinted in the sunlight shining from the window. A small smile adorned her face. She liked it, too, to be honest. At first, it was just something that would help her survive and get rid of the damning thoughts that plagued her mind. But now, it was something that let her move on. That might allow her let go of the past. Even if some of it was good.

"Dana did it for me," Max said as she twirled the strand around her finger. "I figured a... change would be nice. Being back here... It brings back a lot of memories I'd rather forget."

It was like it was on the tip of her tongue but with a memory in her mind. A lot of things happened five years ago. Chloe yelled at her to go die. To go to Hell and never speak to her again. Only, that didn't happen in the first two timelines. The Original and William Timelines had Max leave with tears and hugs from Chloe, both of them promising not to forget the other. When she changed back to the original timeline, letting William die, Max made the mistake of trying to comfort someone not in grief. Max told Chloe that she'd always be there for her and when she moved, it made Chloe go off the deep end. Instead of hugs and tears, it was yelling and insults. Chloe told her to never speak to her again and that she wished Max was dead because she was leaving her just like William. That Max should have been gone instead of her father if she was just going to end up leaving anyway. Max knew all too well how that would have ended up.

"You lived in Arcadia?" Rachel's voice broke through the fog of the Rachel Reality's memories that clouded Max's mind. The newly dyed redhead looked to Rachel with furrowed eyebrows.

"I didn't tell you?" It seemed odd that the other Max, the previous Max, didn't tell Rachel about her living in Arcadia five years ago. Did something happen that caused that Max to keep it to herself?

Rachel shook her head. "Oh," Max continued. "Well, I was born here and moved to Seattle around five years ago because my dad got a job promotion."

"But what do you want to forget?" Rachel asked. "I doubt Arcadia was bad enough when you lived here. Jefferson wasn't teaching at Blackwell then."

"While I lived here, I had a best friend. We were... we were nearly inseparable for the time we were friends. And then her dad died when she was fourteen. I was thirteen. The week of her dad's funeral I had to tell her that I was moving. When I did, she... She didn't take the news well."

It was choking. The different memories of the time line was choking her. Like she was drowning in quicksand. But the stand of hair twirled around her finger seemed to ground her. Seemed to keep her in the present. Seemed to keep her from getting lost in the maze of memories intricately woven into her mind.

"We didn't end on good terms," Max explained. "And after that, we haven't talked or seen each other in five years."

"Do I know her?" Rachel asked. Max let a wry smile adorn her face.

"I would hope so," Max said. "You have been kissing her for a few months."

Rachel's mouth dropped open and her eyes went wide. "Oh my god," she whispered. "I've been sleeping with my best friend's ex-best friend. How did this turn into a soap opera?"

Max ignored the burning in her chest. Rachel and Chloe have... gone all the way then. Max tried not to be surprised, it was expected, but that didn't stop her heart from squeezing tight and making it hard for her to breathe. She hoped that Rachel didn't notice but she wouldn't be too alarmed if she did. Max was kinda making this easy for her.

"I don't know," Max answered. "It kinda feels like the universe is just making our lives a little more complicated."

"Max... Do you want to see Chloe?" Rachel asked.

It was a loaded question. One Max desperately didn't want asked. But there it was, out in the open. A question hanging out in the air to taunt Max as if the flashbacks and nightmares weren't enough.

Max wanted to see Chloe more than she wanted anything in her entire life. She wanted to hug the bluenette, to feel her lips on Chloe's once again, and to never let go. But it wasn't her Chloe anymore. It wasn't the Chloe she wanted. The one she wanted was the one that stole the keys to the pool so they could go for a midnight swim. The one she wanted to hug like her life depended on it had dared Max to kiss her the next morning. The one she wanted to kiss was the one she sacrificed to save Arcadia and took for granted. She didn't deserve another Chloe. Not with the things she has and hasn't done.

"I... No," Max answered after a few moments. "Chloe and I didn't talk for five years and we didn't separate on good terms. It's probably better if we just live our lives as far away from each other as we can. We... Chloe and I considered ourselves pirates when we were younger. When I moved, Chloe considered that mutiny. And captains never forgive a mutiny."

"I'm sorry, Max," Rachel said. Max simply shook her head.

"It's not your fault," she replied. "I'm just glad that Chloe has someone. I talked to Joyce a while ago. I know that she has had a rough time after I left and Joyce said that you were one of the best things to happen to her in the last five years. I owe you for that. For looking after my friend even when I couldn't."

Max turned to look at the now silent Rachel. "Do you know where the junkyard is?" Rachel suddenly asked.

"I... I think so," Max answered. Memories flashed in her mind, leaving behind a trace of pain in its wake. Chloe and a gun. Frank and a bracelet. A train and a crowbar. Then Rachel and a hut. The safe house. Their talk. Owing her for looking after Chloe.

"Why?" Max asked.

"I want you to come there," Rachel said. "Tomorrow, you and I are going to a safe place that I like to call American Rust."

 _'Home away from Hell.'_

"No, Rachel," Max said. "I know what you're doing. You can't trick me to see Chloe just after I tell you that I'm not going to see her. I'm fine with not seeing her for the rest of my stay here. If we happen to cross paths, I'll talk to her, but I'm not going to allow you to try to trick me to see her."

"How'd you know?" Rachel asked with a small smile.

"You have this twitch in your eye," Max answered. "Like you're trying to Jedi mind trick me or something. Which obviously means that you can and are trying to trick me."

"You can't fault me for trying," Rachel said as leaned back on the bed more and started looking through her phone once again.

"No," Max said to herself with a small smile. "I can't."

Rachel seriously meant that she wasn't going to let Max out of her sight for the rest of the day. Rachel refused to allow Max a moment of privacy, even that morning when Max had to change into a different set of clothes. Rachel watched the entire time.

"Hey," she said. "You saw me completely naked. It's more than fair if I only see you half-naked."

"Right," Max retorted sarcastically. "But me seeing you naked was entirely your fault."

"And this is your fault for making me worry," Rachel answered with a snobbish tone. "So strip."

It felt odd having someone other than Chloe watch her undress. In all the timelines when she and Chloe were best friends, they had always gotten undressed in front of the other. They were best friends so not an ounce of shame was shown from either side when they took their clothes off. But having Rachel, a girl Max knew to be beautiful inside and out, watch her was making her nervous.

Max may only love Chloe, but that didn't mean other people- other _girls_ \- didn't register on Max's radar. She understood why the previous Max fell for Rachel so fast. Rachel was just as the rumors made her out to be. She was energetic but elegant. Sexual and sensual but reserved to most people except Chloe and a few others like previous Max. She was a light in a lot of people's worlds. So of course, shy and nervous photographer Maxine Caulfield would fall for her.

Max was still shy and nervous, though not as much as she had been before she gained her time powers. So it was hard for her to peel off her clothes in front of one of the hottest girls Max had ever seen and the only one she had ever seen naked. Even if it was accidental.

Max had to take a calming breath before she did anything. She needed to forget that Rachel was there for a moment. That the blonde wasn't watching Max take off her clothes and put new ones on. That Rachel wasn't going to see her the way only Chloe has before. Then again, Rachel was sleeping with Chloe in that way, so she probably sees better every day.

Max breathed in through her nose before she peeled off her hoodie. The AC hit her bare arms and she couldn't help but shudder. Her arms were littered with freckles though some seemed to be disappearing the more she got older. She threw the hoodie on the bed behind her next to Rachel.

Max then took the hem of her shirt and slowly pulled it up, revealing freckled skin to the blonde. Red hair fell in sync as the shirt was successfully pulled off her torso. Her tan bra stood out on her very pale skin but Max tried not to think about that.

The jeans were next after she untied her shoes and shook them off. The jeans came down to her ankles easily enough. They revealed white panties and Max couldn't get a new pair of jeans on fast enough. Next came the shirt with the silver butterfly. Max pulled it out of her closet and put it on.

A thought came to her in the middle of putting her shirt on. It made her stop and appreciate how far she had come. How far in life she had endured and survived. It was November. Thanksgiving was so close and yet so far away. Thanksgiving break would have Max go back to her parents in Seattle. Maybe she wouldn't have any panic attacks there. That would be something. A few months and she would be done with 2013. The thought made her smile at the floor.

After Max dressed, she realized Rachel really was serious. She wouldn't let Max out of her sight. They walked into Blackwell together. They sat in Max's classes together, even though Rachel was supposed to be on the other side of the campus during most of them. They even ate lunch together on the front yard of the school with Kate, Dana, Stella, Warren, and Juliet instead of going with Chloe to Two Whales. Which was about as awkward as Max thought it could get.

Max and the others enjoyed the cool wind as it blew through the grass and through the stitching of their clothes. The fresh November air seemed all the sweeter to Max. To Max, October lasted more than thirty-one days. It lasted for more than a month. It lasted forever. Especially when she relived the same days and minutes and hours over and over again when she used her rewind to get the right situation perfect. Something she wasn't at all keen to do ever again.

"You scared the shit out of us, Max," Dana was saying. It had been nearly seven minutes and Dana still hadn't stopped talking about Max ditching on the party and how she wouldn't answer her phone most of the night and morning.

"I'm sorry," Max said again. "How many times are you going to make me say it. I'm a shitty friend, I got it. Now can you tell me how the party was?"

Dana sighed and Juliet only smirked at both Max's and Dana's responses. "I guess," Dana said in an over exaggeration. "The party went amazingly as you could probably guess," she said. "The Vortex club wasn't dictating everything as they used to do and most people just had fun instead of trying to get into the Vortex club area."

"Oh you so wish you could get in," Victoria's voice said as she came into view behind the others. Max stared at Victoria for a second, wondering what she meant until it came to her. There weren't a lot of people in the Vortex club in the Rachel Reality. The bad press with Nathan really hit the elitist club hard. A lot of people who were in the club in the first place weren't anymore. Now, the vortex club was hardly a club at all.

"What are you doing here, Victoria?" Dana asked as she, Rachel, and Juliet glared at the heir to the Chase Space company. Kate, Warren, Stella, and Max simply looked at her and watched the interaction.

Victoria and Nathan had been friends before Blackwell apparently. It was family money that brought them together when they were young and they stayed friends through the years. Kids brought together by money and parents that couldn't give a damn about them tended to stick together more than kids with loving parents and little money. Chloe and Max were perfect examples.

"I came to see what the losers were up to," Victoria said haughtily.

"Then shouldn't you go back to your friends if you're so interested?"

The words came out of Max's mouth before she could stop them. It was such a classic Chloe remark that Max smiled though she hadn't been around Chloe in weeks, her influence was like a second reapplying skin that enveloped Max every time she thought of the bluenette. The others looked to her in shock, no doubt wondering why she said that and how she even came up with that so fast.

Max and Victoria stared down for a moment.

"You look like a fucking prostitute," Victoria sneered.

"Figured I'd try to look like one of the bitches that follow you for days on end," Max retorted.

"You'd be lucky to shadow me for a day," Victoria said.

"I'd be lucky not to die from boredom the first hour," Max replied.

"At least the world would be better off if you did die."

"Not as much as it would be if it still has you."

"Please," she sneered. "I'm a gift."

"That no one can return," Max finished.

They stopped their verbal fight for a moment and stared at each other. Victoria had this look on her face, like she was wondering something. Max, on the other hand, was freaking out internally. How she managed to maintain this verbal back and forth was odd. It was like part of her said things before she even knew what to say. It could be a past Max. A previous Max that got into fights with Victoria a lot.

It was then she remembered Maxine. The Max in the William Reality. The Max that was so girly, got together with Nathan, and friends with Victoria. Friends had banters all the time. She and Chloe started to fight once and she and Max ended up yelling insults at each other that eventually turned into compliments. Could it be possible that Max and Victoria did it often enough that Maxine knew what to say and was doing it for her? Was that even a thing?

"Well, look who finally got some balls," Victoria commented.

"We can't all be born with them like you," Max sniped back.

Victoria smiled. A real, wry smile and laughed. "I'll see you around, Maxine."

"It's Max," she said automatically but Victoria was already walking off. "Bye, Vic!"

Max saw the elegant rich girl with a pixie cut stop for a second, shake her head, and then continue walking to her clique. When Max turned to the others, they were staring at her with wide eyes and open mouths.

"What the hell was that?" Dana finally yelled at her. "That was so fucking awesome, Max!"

"While I am appalled at Dana's language," Kate intervened, "I must say that _that_ was the most amazing thing I've seen in a long time."

"I've got to write this in the paper," Juliet said eagerly.

"What? No!" Max said with wide eyes. "Don't put something so small in the paper. No attention!"

"Max," Warren said, "that was amazing. We gotta tell someone about it."

"No." Max was met with pouts and puppy dog eyes but she held steadfast in her decision. Dana was the one to give up first and soon the rest followed. Max looked to Rachel but she was on her phone, frowning at something.

"You okay?" Max asked. Rachel looked at her with scrunched eyebrows.

"Yeah," she said distractedly. "Just Chloe hasn't answered my text yet."

That brought the attention of the rest of the group, Dana asking how things with Chloe were going. Rachel went into full on Love Mode, talking about the cute things that she and Chloe have done. It ached Max's heart but she ignored it and listened with a smile, happy that Chloe was happy.

The next few hours disappeared in a flash. There were times when she thought she felt her powers affecting things around her but she quickly dismissed the idea. Her powers haven't been used in weeks. She could still feel them under her skin, pulsating like a living being, but she would know if they were ever used. Time had a new meaning to Max. If things went too fast or slow, she wasn't sure if it was her or something else affecting time like that. Or it may be that time had always been like that to the normal her and she was overreacting because she couldn't remember what time normally felt like.

The day ended with Rachel and Max in the same bed. It was odd, feeling Rachel next against her. The last person that was that close was Chloe in the other week. They both felt different. Both of them smelled different. Whereas Chloe smelled like weed, smoke, and liquor with a fresh hint of October air, Rachel smelled like a lot of different people hanging together under a cloud of rain. It was almost intoxicating, just like Chloe.

Max sort of wondered what she smelled like. Probably not as good as Chloe or Rachel. Maybe just average, like sweat and deodorant.

Max thought about the verbal back and forth with Victoria for the rest of the day. She was aware that memories and feelings still resided with her in the reality she was in left over from the previous Max. But was it possible to have their different personalities with her as well. And if so, why haven't they shown 'till then? Was it bad timing or something else?

"You still awake?" Rachel asked her. It had been five minutes since they turned the lights off and got underneath the covers. Rachel was on the side closest to the wall and Max was on the side closest to the door. Just in case.

"Yeah," Max said.

"Are you sure you don't want to see Chloe tomorrow?" Rachel asked. They hadn't spoken about it since that morning but sure enough, the question was there again.

Max was tempted to say no, to see the girl of her dreams again, but she forced herself to say yes. "I'm sure," she said. "Just don't mention me, please? It's best if I just fade into the background of her memories."

"But-"

"I'm sure, Rachel." That was the end of the conversation as Max turned on her side to face away from the blonde. She quickly entered her nightmares and she was glad that she learned to stop screaming when she woke up.


	4. Episode One: Tachypsychia (Part Four)

**Part Four: Nightmares**

The flashing lights blinded her. Her arms felt heavy and so did her eyelids. She could feel the hard floor beneath her, cold and digging into her side. There was a breeze blowing passed her exposed skin, chilling her to the bone.

The flashing went on until it didn't. The end of the flashing made relief bloom in her eyes that soon exhaled to the rest of her body, making her less tense as she tried to turn over. To get up off the floor. It was a floor wasn't it?

But then her attention was on something moving. A tall someone that had garbled sounds coming out of their mouth. Her ears weren't ringing but only accepting words as garbled sludge. The someone was pacing, talking garbled words that she couldn't understand to himself or her and checking a something that the flashing was coming from.

And then she moved again, trying to ignore the heavy lead put into her limbs and stomach. She felt heavy.

"I said STAY STILL!" The someone's garbled words suddenly cleared as he yelled and stalked towards her. Glasses, short black hair, and a pristine white shirt invaded her vision. She... She knew that someone. The name was on the tip of her tongue.

"J-... Jeffer...son."

The word barely came out of her mouth before a pain blared in her side. It woke her up like an alarm, allowing her to feel the sluggish movements of her hands as she clutched her side. To see the camera that was blinding her earlier. To feel the slow pulse underneath her skin that seemed to match the slow heartbeat that pounded against her chest.

The man kicked her again in the stomach.

"I said STAY STILL!" He roared. "How many times do I have to tell you, Max!"

"F- Fuck you..." The response trailed off weakly, as if she didn't have the strength to keep talking. She felt like she didn't.

Pain echoed through her body as the man kicked her again. It made her curl into herself, showing her the white skin of her thighs and stomach. She was naked. She didn't remember taking off her clothes.

"You should consider yourself lucky, Max!" He yelled. "There's not many that capture my attention! You should be honored that I chose you as my subject!"

"Victim," she weakly protested. "...Victim..."

"I can see what you're saying, Max," he admitted. "I get that you'd see it that way considering that you're going to die after this. But think of the pictures!"

"Chloe..." Her voice was not ready for this. It cracked and it seemed to make the man even angrier than before.

"She's dead, Max!" He screamed. "Why can't you get that through your thick skull? She's dead because you two couldn't keep your fucking noses out of my fucking business! All of this is your fault, Max!"

"Chloe..." She whispered again. Pain erupted on her shoulder and she screamed her voice hoarse.

"It seems I'm going to have to teach you a lesson," he muttered. But she could hear it. And she could hear the belt he started to unbuckle.

She started to buck wildly, trying to get away, before her head snapped to the side and pain exploded in her eyes. Black dots wouldn't get blinked away no matter how much she tried. The pulsing beneath her skin beat faster, but its protests were unheard as the zipper of the man's pants was heard.

Red swam in her vision as she raised her hand and the pulsing bled into her ears. But nothing happened. She couldn't do anything while the man got undressed. Her vision was thrown into whack as it blurred and started to static like an old video tape before going back to normal. The pulsing underneath her skin disappeared, leaving her alone with the man that let his hands roam her body.

"No..." It was all she could get out before he hit her again. Her vision darkened and before she passed out, the last thing she heard was his voice whispered against her cheek.

"I said _stay still._ "

And then Rachel Amber woke up.

* * *

It took Rachel a few minutes to steady her breathing. She could feel her blood pounding in her ears and her hear her heart thudding against her chest. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she remembered the dream. That... That was Mark Jefferson. And Rachel saw herself through Max's eyes.

How fucked up did she have to be? Why the fuck would she even dream something like that? Was she so fucking insane that she dreamed her best friend getting raped by Arcadia's psycho and saw it through her eyes? That was what happened, right? Rachel just dreamed that Max Caulfield, a girl Rachel cherished, getting raped by a man she hated.

Max was on the other side of the bed, curled in on herself and looking like she hadn't moved since they had fallen asleep. Rachel was on the farthest side of the bed closest to the wall. The only thing in between them was Rachel's arm, with her fingers barely an inch from the exposed portion of skin of Max's back.

Another thought about the dream made Rachel shudder and tremble. Would it be wrong if she woke Max up? Just to make sure she was okay? The dream had seemed so real. It _felt_ real. Rachel could feel Jefferson's hands still on her skin and the lead in her arms and legs. Would it be so wrong if she woke Max up to ease Rachel's mind?

"Max?" Rachel whispered. Max didn't stir. "Max," she said again but it ended up with the same result. Rachel reached out to touch the new redhead. "Ma-"

The moment she touched the exposed part of Max's back, she was whisked away in a haze of static and blur. She was on a cliff, overlooking Arcadia Bay as a storm tore it to pieces. A giant tornado drew everything inside it and then suddenly spewed it back out, like it was going in reverse. Then it took everything again, and again the damage was rewound.

"Do you see what you're doing, Max?" Rachel turned towards the all too familiar voice to see Chloe standing there. Max was standing near her, on her knees and shedding tears as she looked on at the carnage of the storm. "This is all your fault. Why should I be with someone who destroys things? Who's killed more people than Ted Bundy? You're the reason why I'm doing this."

Rachel could only watch as Chloe turned from Max and started to run to the edge of the cliff. Rachel could hear Max screaming but it was garbled, the same as Jefferson's had been. The second Chloe reached the edge of the cliff, everything changed.

Now they were standing on the roof of the Blackwell dorms, the rain stilled in place but the air just as cold as it had been on that cliff. Max was still on her knees, staring the way Chloe had ran only to be staring at someone else.

Kate Marsh glared at the brunette. Her usual bun was there and she was wearing clothes that would have been appropriate for church if they weren't soaked and wrinkled. Kate's eyes were red and had bags under them. Her bun was messy and needed care, something Rachel knew Kate would have taken care of long before it got to the degree of messy it was now.

"Why shouldn't I, Max?" Kate asked in a harsh tone Rachel had never heard from the Christian. "I shouldn't jump because what? You looked at my stuff? Because you took my phone call and had tea with me?"

"Please, Kate." Max's voice was audible now. Rachel could hear the cracks and hoarseness in her voice from a few feet away. Kate only laughed. "You- You don't have to do this..."

"Of course I don't have to," Kate sneered. "I want to. Because you're here. Because you couldn't do anything to save me." Her voice and face turned soft. Frail, almost. "Why couldn't you have been there, Max? Why did you let this happen to me?"

"I-I-I-" Kate turned and swan dived before Max could get a word out. "NO!"

Rachel tried to stop Max from jumping after Kate but Max simply passed through her like she was a ghost. Rachel yelled and screamed but her voice wasn't there. She watched as Max jumped after Kate only to be frozen in the air. The world darkened, only leaving Max and Rachel visible. The world disappeared.

"How's it feel, Max?" Said a voice. A different Max came out from the shadows. This one had a classic brunette Max hair but was wearing Rachel's clothes. The ones she kept in Chloe's closet. "How's it feel to be frozen like everyone else?"

Rachel saw that her Max, the one with red hair, struggle in her invisible confines. "What's wrong, Max? Is it uncomfortable? Can I make it better?"

A gunshot rang in the air, making Rachel and Max scream. Rachel more out of surprise than pain, but Max was still screaming as blood fell from the frozen figure.

"You should have died in that bathroom, Max!" The evil Max yelled at the frozen one. "Not her, but you! Why couldn't you have just stepped out of that stall?! Everything would have been better!"

Another gunshot rang in the air and frozen Max screamed again. Tears poured out of Rachel's eyes as she tried to stop the ringing in her ears. What the hell was this? Why was she dreaming this? What the fuck was going on!?

"I don't understand, Max," the evil Max admitted. "Why are you even here? Why do you want to torture yourself? Get it through your fucking skull that you can never have her! She's gone! Your partner in time and crime doesn't want you cause she has someone else! And she doesn't even remember that!"

"Shut- Shut up..." Frozen Max's voice broke. She had screamed herself hoarse. Rachel could tell.

"Why don't you just give up?" The evil Max's voice turned soft, coaxing. "Why do you put yourself through this misery? You can give up. No one would miss you. It's okay."

The world reappeared as somewhere else. Rachel recognized it from the pictures in the papers and articles online. It was Mark Jefferson's liar. The place he took girls, drugged and photographed them. But there things that weren't in the pictures. A computer and red binders visible from a bookshelf. There was more detail in the room than Rachel had ever thought about before. Max was in a chair now, one hand strapped to the chair's arm while her other hand dangled at her side. In her hand was a gun. A revolver Rachel swore looked familiar.

Rachel ran over to Max before she could help herself. Max's face stared at the floor, her red hair gone and replaced with brown. Her usually bright eyes were dulled and half-lidded. Rachel recognized the look enough to know that she was as high as a kite at that moment. But still somehow coherent.

"She's right, you know," said a voice from behind Rachel. When Rachel turned, she couldn't help but back away from Max and into the white backdrop behind them. Standing in front of both of them was Mark Jefferson. His white shirt and black dress pants were perfect and pristine, like they had just been ironed. Jefferson's hair was shorter than she remembered and his glasses made him look like a hipster. But the smile on his face and the look in his eyes revealed the devil he was.

"Why go through all this pain, every single night?" Jefferson asked. "You have the means."

"The rooftop," Max muttered from her chair.

"You have the time to do it," Jefferson said.

"The gun," Max supplied, seemingly still answering the first question.

"So why don't you just end it?" Jefferson asked.

"Because it's good here," Max answered as she finally looked up at him. "I like it here. I like waking up and knowing that no one has died because of me. Knowing that no one _will_ die because of me."

"You're _wrong_ , Max!" Jefferson said as he backhanded her. Rachel had to shove her fist into her mouth to keep her from yelling out. "You may think that everything is sunshine and rainbows but it's not! Look at me, Max!"

Max did and so did Rachel. "We both know what you really want. We both know that it doesn't want you. So why don't you accept fate and die already? Do you really want to go against fate or the universe again? Look what happened last time. You failed. And now, everyone is happy but you. Why, Max? Why is that?"

"Because I made it that way." Another backhand. Blood leaked out of her nose as it bent at an unnatural angle.

"Wrong, Max," Jefferson said. "You're smarter than this. I chose you for a reason. Because you couldn't stay out of my fucking business and almost got me caught but also because you're smart. You're like me but you just don't know it. You're going to have one more chance to answer correctly before I stick the special needle into you."

"Because I don't deserve happiness," she finally spat after a few seconds. "Is that what you wanted to hear? That I don't deserve it? Well, guess what, I don't! I deserve to be sad and fucking depressed! And I'm going to stay that way instead of taking the easy way out! I'm sure as hell going to take my punishment, so you can fuck off!"

Jefferson chuckled. "You and I are a lot alike, Max," he said. "That's why I liked you when you first came to Blackwell. We were so much alike even when you had to snoop into everyone's fucking business about Rachel Amber. Well, how did that work out for you? How much has she taken from you? The one thing you ever wanted in any one of the other realities is hers now. What do you say to that?"

"I say that she deserves Chloe a hell of a lot more than I do," Max said before she raised the gun to her own temple and pulled the trigger.

Rachel's hand pulled back just as Max gasped awake. The blonde's heart pounded in her ears. What... What the mother fucking hell was that!?

Rachel kept her breathing even as Max sat up, stretched, and then broke down into tears. Rachel laid there, motionless except for her breathing, watching her best friend cry. Rachel wanted to comfort the redhead. Wanted to rub her back and coax her into a peaceful sleep. But she didn't. Her blood chilled when Max muttered something to herself before she could.

"Fuck you, Jefferson," she said. "We're nothing alike."

* * *

Max had to wait nearly an hour before she dared herself to try to fall back to sleep. She wasn't getting a lot of shut eye and it was starting to show. Her movements were slow and sluggish, her head felt heavy all the time, and her eyes closed at the most inopportune times. In that hour, she was wide awake but still felt the shadow of sleep over her like a ghost.

The hour went by as Max sat on her newly cleaned desk, staring out the open window with a blunt in her hand. It was for emergencies but Max was certain that she needed it after the nightmare she just had. Her muscles relaxed but she couldn't sleep just yet. Instead, she decided to finish the blunt and stare out the window at the Blackwell campus, remembering memories that ought not be remembered.

Rachel was still asleep, not having moved an inch except to bury herself more under the covers when the chilling air kept out by the window was allowed in. The blonde was so peaceful that Max felt sorry that she opened the window the moment she did. Sure, she thought it was cute that Rachel buried deeper into Max's sheets with her vanilla smell, but she felt bad that Rachel had to do it in the first place.

Max was also jealous of Rachel. Dream Jefferson was right in a sense. Rachel took the one thing she wanted most and there wasn't a damn thing Max could do about it. Chloe loved Rachel, Max knew that. It was everywhere in the Storm Reality. The way Chloe would talk about her and how there were Rachel's clothes in Chloe's closet. The pictures they shared and Chloe cherished. Max couldn't help but think that they belonged together and that she would be nothing but an outsider looking in.

The newly decided redhead leaned back into the window sill, one leg hanging out the window and her right hand hanging down with the joint in her hand. She brought it to her lips and took a puff. Her left leg was bent and pushed close to her chest while her left arm rested on her knee. Max closed her eyes, slowly blowing the smoke out the window and into the outside world. A world she mangled and manipulated until it suited her needs only for it to fight back and win.

Max switched the joint to her left hand and reached out to the sky with her right hand, memorizing the glittering stars. The pulsing beneath her skin got faster but didn't dare reach any farther than her elbow or fingertips. There were times she was tempted to use her powers in those few short weeks of being in this new reality. There had been so many times she wanted to freeze time and run. So many times she wanted to rewind so that she could do something she never had the chance to and then rewind like nothing ever happened.

Max started wondering back to the beginning. The bathroom and the picture she went through to change everything. Was what evil Max in her nightmare said a possibility? Could she have just run out of the stall and confronted Nathan? Kept Chloe from getting shot but risking the possibility of getting shot herself? Better Max than Chloe but the mess of blonde hair sharing one of Max's pillows was something that she didn't regret.

As much as Max was jealous of the blonde, enamored with her at times, there was a point in Max's life when she wanted to help as many people as she could. Of course, there were selfish reasons behind helping everyone in the Storm Reality. She wanted people to like her and not see her as such a shy, cliche geek. Max felt that with getting and keeping Rachel alive, it might be the first person that Max saved that wasn't for her own benefit. All those times to save Chloe and the town were for her. They were so Max could keep going. Saving Rachel meant Chloe could keep going, even if it was without Max for the rest of time.

Max remembered doing something when she went back in the pictures. A meltdown of some kind. It helped her push the boundaries that came with going into pictures and allowed her to get to Arcadia Bay. She hadn't thought about it in the time she had been in the Rachel Reality or in the picture, but now, in the dead of night and more than a little high, it came to her. What the hell was that?

It looked like electricity. Golden electricity. What did she do? Put fuzzy socks on and rub them on a patch of carpet? Rub her hair with a balloon? Max didn't see what electricity had to do with time- if it had anything to do with time and she wasn't just developing new, unwanted powers. She hoped to Dog that wasn't the case.

Her hand hummed and she felt a familiar tingle in her fingers before she stopped. That was the Rewind. The pulsing in her hand trying to reach out into the world like it was a living and breathing thing. She didn't want to go back. She never wanted to go back ever again. So instead of rewinding, she imagined she was back in the pictures, facing a boundary, and pushed.

Golden electricity crackled in between her fingers, like a static charge. The electricity was thick and bright against the dark black background of the sky. Max stopped pushing and the electricity vanished, only the hum and pulsing of the Rewind underneath her skin signalling what had happened. Max closed her hand and pulled it to her chest.

She was worried. What did it mean? Why was it happening? What was the point? This new power could backfire on her so much. The Rewind was more indirect but this... It was like a weapon. Max could feel the volts coursing in between her fingers. Could feel the tingle and the small amount of pain it inflicted on her. If someone else touched it, would it hurt them worse than Max? The redhead didn't want to find out at all.

Max got up off the desk and closed the window once the blunt was finished. She put the blunt out in a bottle of Coca-Cola she hadn't finished. She didn't need caffeine at one thirty seven in the morning.

'Okay, Caulfield,' she thought to herself. 'Time to get some sleep. They're just nightmares. Nothing to be afraid of.'

"Max?" Rachel groaned from the bed as Max's knee dipped into the mattress. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Max said. "I just had to pee. Sorry for waking you."

Rachel only grunted and turned over to go back to sleep. Max stepped in and wrapped herself in the covers. Her eyes closed and her breathing evened and she waited for sleep to come. When it finally did, she wasn't saved from the nightmares. If anything, they were the same, boasting, narcissistic, petulant nightmares she's had since the beginning.

"What do you think makes us, _us_?" Evil Max asked a few moments later as she and Max sat in a booth at Two Whales with everyone frozen around them. It was reminiscent of the first time they met, if evil Max was the same Max the real Max met back then in the Nightmare Place.

"Some kind of genetic disorder, maybe?" Max took a guess and was rewarded with a raised eyebrow from the evil Max.

"You're actually participating now?" Evil Max questioned. Then she shrugged. "Alright, have at it. It gets lonely talking to myself."

Max didn't bother giving her a fake laugh.

"Oh, come on; that was funny!" The evil Max insisted. When Max still didn't laugh, the clone sighed. "Fine... Genetic disorder? That's what you're going for? I'd like to think that the Rewind is a gift from God, you know? Maybe we're his chosen people and have to help the world."

"That's bullshit," Max said, interrupting the evil clone's daydream. "God didn't have anything to do with this."

"Oh?" Evil Max asked as she sipped her coffee. "And why is that?"

"Why give me powers I can't use?" Max asked. "I tried to help people but ended up with a storm and a dead best friend. After that, I ended up with nightmares and a drug dealer as the closest thing I have to a confidant."

Evil Max smiled wryly. "I think we both know that she was more than your best friend, Max," said the evil Max in Rachel's clothes.

"That doesn't matter now," Max said as she looked out the booth window. "I still think that it was some genetic disorder. Maybe I'm a mutant or a scientific accident."

"You really don't like my God theory," evil Max commented.

"No," Max admitted. "I don't."

"That's fine," evil Max assured her. "I don't really like the theory either, it's just that with the storm and the butterflies... It can be hard to see it as a coincidence."

"If I ever find that butterfly ever again," Max warned as she looked evil Max in the eyes, "I'll kill it."

Evil Max smiled. "I wouldn't expect anything less."

* * *

Max was woken up from her not-really-a-nightmare-but-still-unwanted-dream-discussion-with-evil-Max by her phone vibrating on the bedside table. Max groggily peeled off the bed, careful not to wake Rachel on this fine Saturday morning. The angelic blonde was still peacefully asleep, settled deep into Max's covers just like the night before.

The phone stopped vibrating only to start up again the next second. Max picked up her phone and looked at the caller I.D. to see Frank's name appear on the screen. The redhead took a long look at the blonde in her bed before she answered it and turned away from Rachel.

"Hey," Max whispered. "What's up?"

"I got a little visit from Chloe this morning," Frank's gravelly voice said from the phone. Max furrowed her eyebrows. This morning? She spotted her clock and realized that it was already ten fourteen in the morning. She and Rachel had slept in.

"What did she want?" Max asked. She spared another glance to the still sleeping blonde before turning away again.

"To give me the money she owed," Frank replied. "I didn't take it, I swear, but I did tell her that the debt was already paid."

"Shit," Max cursed sharply. "What else did you tell her?"

"Nothing but that," Frank said. "I told her the debt was paid and I wasn't going to tell her who gave me the money."

"Thanks," Max said before another thought came to her. "Where'd she get the money, Frank?"

"I've got no clue," he told her. "But she came in with a fat stack of cash in an envelope. She wasn't being careful about it either. She might as well have a searchlight on her with her acting like an escaped convict."

"What kind of envelope?" Max asked. "Was it brownish, sort of like one schools puts grades in?"

"My memory from school is a little foggy, but yeah. Something like that." Max cursed again. "What's up, Max. Talk to me."

"I think I know where she got it," Max told him. "If it's what I think it is, I really hope she wasn't caught." Another beat of silence between them. "You guys behaved, right?"

"Of course I did," Frank said. "But Price has a mouth on her. It took a real amount of willpower not to skewer her or sic Pompidou on her."

"Be glad you didn't," Max said. "If I know her- and I do- she'd have something to defend herself. And she has."

"'Aight," Frank growled. "Thanks for having my back, Max."

"Always," she told him. "You're my friend... Though you calling insistently for the last few minutes makes me wonder why you called just to discuss an encounter."

"Right..." Frank cleared his throat. "I think that she might be coming to Blackwell."

"What? Why?" Max asked, suddenly alarmed.

"She was talking to herself on the way out of Two Whales," he said. "Saying things about getting Rachel and getting out. I couldn't hear anything other than that."

Max sighed. She knew that Chloe and Rachel wanted out of Arcadia Bay as soon as possible but didn't have the money to get out. Now, with no debt to pay off to Frank and over three grand in her pocket, Chloe could get out her and Rachel out of Arcadia with more than they needed. It would last them a month or two or three if they were smart with the money. Max couldn't fault them for trying to get out.

"Thanks for telling me, Frank," Max said. "I'll make sure to get out of the way when she shows up."

"Max-" His voice cut off when she closed the call. Max gently put the phone back on the bedside table and pressed her hands against the door. The redhead took a deep breath once... twice... three times before her nerves calmed down. Then she turned back to Rachel to wake the blonde up.

"Rachel," Max called as she shook the girl's shoulder. "Rachel."

"What, Max?" Rachel grumbled as she tried to bury herself deeper into the pillows.

"It's ten in the morning," Max said. "We slept in."

Rachel groaned into the pillow. "Ugh, fine," she said as she sat up. "I gotta get dressed. Do you mind reading me my text messages?"

'Mind?' Max thought to herself. 'You are allowing a master snooper into your phone, Ms. Amber.'

"Are you sure?" Max asked her.

"Yeah," Rachel said with a roll of her eyes. "You know the code. Just read me the messages while I get dressed."

Max shrugged and located Rachel's phone next to hers. _6150_ flashed in Max's mind and she typed it in. Rachel's phone unlocked and allowed Max a tempting run of free reign. Max mentally smacked herself and ignored everything else and went to messages.

"You got one from Dana saying: 'Hope you and Max are getting that BFF cuddle time in.'" Max heard Rachel laugh from behind her and resisted the urge to turn and peek; she could here the blonde shedding her clothes as well.

"One from Kate asking both of us to tea at her dorm," Max kept reading. "And... And one from Chloe saying that she's coming to the dorms and that she loves you."

Max wasn't sure if Rachel heard her voice crack or not but chose to ignore it. Max tried to explain it away. Rachel and Chloe had been friends for three straight years and dating for six months- that Max knew of- so of course they would be at that stage by now. They had probably been developing feelings for the other while Max was in Seattle. It was natural.

"You okay, Max?" Rachel asked.

"I'm good," Max said while keeping her voice even. "It's just that... Chloe's coming here. Or to your dorm. If you're not there..."

"Don't worry," Rachel laughed. "I'll be out of your hair and into Chloe's in a minute."

"What are you going to do with Chloe?" Max asked.

"Probably go to Two Whales to get some waffles; I'm starving!" Rachel answered. "What are you going to do?"

"Sleep," Max answered. "Probably. Or hang out with someone who's free."

"You know Chloe and I-"

"No, Rachel," Max said, putting a stop to what Rachel was going to say. "You and Chloe are not free. Go hang out with your girlfriend."

Rachel smiled. "Thanks, Max," she said. Rachel suddenly pecked her on the cheek. "You're a good friend." And then she was gone.

Max stood there for a second, wondering what had just happened and why it happened. Rachel kissed her on the cheek for being a good friend? What was she being a good friend about? Letting Rachel see her girlfriend? Letting Rachel date Chloe and not freaking about her dating Max's used to be best friend? Max felt guilt well up in her. She was lying everyday about who she was and Rachel gives her a kiss on the cheek for being a good friend? That sounds about right.

The time travelling redhead sighed as she leaned her head against her closed door. Why did Rachel have to do that? Past Max was in love with Rachel for a reason. Was this it? Was Rachel consciously making everyone fall in love with her? It was starting to grate on Max's nerves and mind. She loved Chloe but Max just couldn't help but look at Rachel. It was infuriating!

Max listened carefully through the door. She heard Rachel's footsteps in the hallway. She heard the door opening at the other end of the hall. Rachel's footsteps quickened and another set of footsteps joined her. The the sound of a door being shut echoed loud enough for everyone left in that floor to hear. Max tried hard not to imagine what they were doing to celebrate getting the money.

* * *

Kate was going to see her first slasher movie with Warren and Brooke. Dana had a date with Trevor. Juliet had to work for the paper. Stella was busy with family. Frank was out of town now, getting a resupply in Portland. Apparently, he worked for some big shots there and sold in Arcadia to get money from the Blackwell rich pricks. Hence, why his need for the three grand that his bosses loaned him. He did say that he took another car and that his RV was open if she wanted it. He wasn't worried about some punk kids stealing anything because it was in the Two Whales parking lot, he left Pompidou inside for the day, and Pompidou would bark at anything he hears. He just warned her not to use all his weed and to stay away from the strong stuff.

So, essentially, everyone who Max wanted to or could hang out with was busy. Right then, Max hated the early worm with a vengeance. Still not knowing what she was going to do, Max opted to get dressed anyway.

As she dug through her closet in search of anything wearable, her eyes spotted the clump of "dirty" clothes at the bottom. Though her mind was on what was buried in the pile. The backpack was a liability to her time in the Rachel Reality. It held a lot of secrets and even worse, could be used as proof she was crazy. If she ever got Victoria really mad and she found this... She could go to the police and have Max arrested for premeditated kidnapping or murder or some shit like that.

Max suddenly found what she was going to do that day.

Max dressed in one of her doe T-shirts, ripped jeans, and her hoodie that sort of smelled like weed. She put on her sneakers, grabbed her wallet, threw the bag over her shoulder, grabbed her lighter and another emergency blunt, and started walking. No one was in the dorm hallway for which Max was grateful for. She didn't need anyone seeing her with a bag that would soon disappear.

Laughter erupted through Rachel's door and Max smiled. They were going to be gone soon. Max wondered if Rachel would say goodbye to her. They were friends- best friends in this reality. Max wondered if Rachel would consider 'leaving with barely a word' bailing on Max. Max certainly wouldn't blame the blonde if she did leave without a word. It'd be kind of like karma in a sense.

Max kept walking and walking and walking. Her mind was filled with thoughts and what ifs that she barely recognized that she was on the bus into town when she got out of her thoughts. She sat quietly and with her eyes closed, not wanting to see the things that haunted her and made it into her nightmares.

Max knew where she was going. She dreamed about it often enough. Only a few short minutes after getting off the bus, she was standing in front of American Rust. It still smelled and looked like Hell itself, but Max felt a little relaxation enter her shoulders and spread throughout her body. She knew what she wanted to do and where, all she had to do was step inside.

It felt like trespassing without Chloe there to guide her, even though she didn't need help to traversing the junkyard. The air seemed unwelcoming, though everything in the Rachel Reality seemed like that at first. It seemed a lot less inviting without Chloe there to show her everything. But then again, Max didn't need to be shown everything; she knew where it was already.

Max felt like she was following a path as she walked towards her destination. As she remembered, it was still a little ways off the main path but still by the front entrance. The gate was open as always so it wasn't hard to 'trespass.'

The ground of Rachel's grave was undisturbed. Max guessed she was a bit morbid for coming there to get rid of the Rachel Investigation. But with Rachel alive now, it wasn't really her grave. It was just a spot of the ground where Max was going to burn the bag and everything in it. Max set down the bag and grabbed a broken piece of metal from a nearby car, and started to dig.

She worked methodically. Her mind cleared and her thoughts left her alone as she worked. Max removed her jacket when she started sweating. It was a little difficult to dig with anything other than a shovel but the bent end of the metal made it work. Max occasionally checked on the sun, making sure that time wasn't passing her by and another Saturday was gone before she knew it. The sun was on the opposite side of the sky from when she started by the time she was done with the hole.

Max sighed and wiped the sweat from her forehead with the sleeve of her hoodie. It was tiring, doing all that work with no water and no breaks. But it was worth it. Max had dug a hole around the same size, if not a little bigger, than her bag. That was all she needed.

Taking out her blunt and the Zippo lighter, she flipped open the lid of the lighter and lit her blunt. She took a long drag out of it and sighed as she slowly blew it out to the sky. Her eyes closed and she could see the grave of Rachel in her head. Behind her eyelids, she could see everything that happened. Everything that haunted Max. Maybe she could finally learn to let go...

Max opened her eyes and grabbed her bag from where she set it down and tossed it down into the hole. Another drag and Max looked around. The shack that Rachel and Chloe hung out at wasn't far... Max was sure they would have some kind of accelerant. Booze or liquor most likely. Max didn't expect gasoline to be in there.

Taking a look around the junkyard and not seeing anyone, Max left her hole to go to Chloe and Rachel's hut/shack/safe-house. No one was there. It was an intense level of snooping and violation of trust that Max had just done, going in there, but she needed the accelerant. Max made sure to put everything back the way she found it as she rooted through the shack. A bottle of Jack Daniel's whiskey was found behind the small padded looking bed thing.

Max stopped before she left. She stared at one spot on the wall, looking at the signatures of both Rachel and Chloe. She remembered how she wanted to fit in and wrote her own name underneath Rachel's and Chloe's. The Nightmare Place took that memory away from her in a way. It was there in front of her face and she didn't even think about it. Rachel's 'was' was scratched out and replaced with 'is' while Chloe's and Max's names were circled and a note saying 'You're all going to die' was next to it. In the end, Chloe did die and if what evil Max said was true, Max could have taken Chloe's place in that bathroom. And now, Rachel is there, with both Max and Chloe. Was that some sort of future vision or just some fucked up fantasy that Max had?

Max shook her head and left the safe house. She didn't have a right to be there any longer. She got what she needed and that was all she was allowed to do. Max had a feeling that if either Rachel or Chloe found her there, she was going to have an early grave. Not that she hasn't thought about it.

She made her way up back to her hole. When she got there, she made sure that her bag was still in the hole. It was. No one snuck by when she was in the safe house and took the shit she was about to burn. Good.

Max unscrewed the cap of the glass bottle and took a whiff. It smelled horrible. But then again, a lot of people died from faulty livers by drinking liquor. It made Max wonder how long Chloe had if she kept drinking in the Storm Reality. She wasn't sure if she still drank in the reality she was in, but there was a rather low influx of beer bottles in the safe house.

Half of the Jack Daniel's bottle was poured into the hole before Max stopped.

"Fuck you, Universe," Max muttered before she took a swig as a toast. It burned down her throat and almost made her cough sporadically. It didn't taste good so it made her wonder if Chloe was crazy for drinking the stuff. It was certainly a possibility.

Max spit out a small bit of saliva before dumping the rest of the bottle in the hole and then the bottle itself. Max flicked on her lighter and watched the flame flicker from the wind before throwing it in the hole. It was consumed in flames almost immediately. The fire's heat wafted over Max, making her take a moment to think about what she's done. She burned one of the only things that she could use to convince anyone that she was from an alternate reality. Though she'd probably be thrown in psychiatric care in some hospital for talking about time streams and shit like that. It was probably for the best that she got rid of it. Dog forbid that Chloe or Rachel would find it. Questions Max really didn't want to answer would have been asked.

She stayed there for a while, smoking her blunt, and watching as the bag, pictures, and papers crippled in on itself as they burned to death. This was a new start for Max. She would never go back, for anything. Nothing to tie her to the past time streams except the pictures underneath her bed. Pictures she was going hide until the end of time somewhere other than under her bed.

It was only when the bag and its contents were ashes and a charred, unreadable mess that Max finally left. She took one last hit of her weed, finishing it, and threw it in the hole with the dead lump that used to be her life. Max gained a life when she and Chloe started hanging out with one another again and tried to figure out what happened to Rachel. Now she had a new one and didn't need reminders of the past life she led. Her new life may not be much of one, but it was hers for now. And she was going to run it out.

Max shoved the dirt back into the hole. The ground was uneven, though in a few days Max was sure that no one would ever suspect anything being under it. One could never be too careful. There could be some kind of gizmo that lets cops and nerds read things that should be burned beyond any recognition. Dirt was good, as far as Max was concerned.

The sun was setting when she was done with it all. It was hard to believe that it took her half a day to do it, but it did. The sun set behind the mass of trees off to the side of the junkyard. American Rust was closing. By this time, the air didn't seem so uninviting anymore. If anything, it seemed to allow her to rest in it. The muscles in her body were way less tense than they had been, but that might be because of the manual labor she had just did.

Max slipped her hoodie on and reveled in the cool air that came with the darkened sky. She had no doubt that she stunk to high heaven by then. But she hadn't eaten all day and was more than a little thirsty, especially given the little toast she had with the whiskey, so despite stinking she went on her way to Two Whales.

The aroma of good food had Max salivating like dog being given a nice juicy steak. She could smell bacon and eggs and hamburgers. It was a royal feast for the middle class. Two Whales wasn't crowded but did house a fair amount of people in their booths.

"Well, don't you look like you just came back from digging to China?" Joyce asked her the moment she sat down in an empty booth. "What? No drug dealer friend with you today?"

"He had business elsewhere today, Joyce," Max said with a small smile. "I know you don't like him, but try to not piss him off. He actually likes it here and it would kill me if I have to keep dragging him here every morning for his pancakes and beans."

"Well, when you put it like that..." Joyce said with a smile of her own. "So what happened to you? You got dirt all over you, Max!"

"Just hiking," she told Joyce.

"In those clothes?" Joyce asked with a raised eyebrow. Max laughed. She probably could have come up with a better cover story but she was tired and hungry. Brains didn't have a high level of productivity when those two aspects mashed together.

"It makes me appreciate A/C," Max replied with a shrug.

"I'm sure it does," Joyce commented under her breath. "So what can I get you?"

"Your biggest hamburger, Joyce," Max said. "I didn't have a lot to eat today."

"Too busy with your hike, huh?" Joyce teased.

"You know me," Max said as she relaxed into the booth's cushions. "Nature Girl."

"That you are," Joyce said as she let out a chuckle. "I'll have that out to you in a jiffy, Max. You just sit tight."

And a jiffy it was. Joyce returned a few minutes later with the biggest burger Max had ever seen. It had everything on it; mustard, ketchup, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, the works. The hamburger was bigger than her palm and Max devoured all of it, reveling in the most delicious thing she's ever tasted in a long time. She must've been even more hungry than she thought.

Max flashed Joyce a smile as she said goodbye, paid her and gave the waitress a favorable tip, and left Two Whales. However, as Max was leaving, she inexplicably bumped into someone as they opened one door and Max opened the opposite.

"Sorry," Max said as she looked up to who she bumped into.

"No problem," Chloe Price said back. Then her eyes seemed to register what they were seeing as they went wider than saucers. "Max?!"

Max barely spared a glance over Chloe's shoulder at the smirking Rachel Amber behind her before she turned and bolted like a squirrel down the steps and into the parking lot. She made sure that no one was following her before she slipped into Frank's RV, shut the door quietly, and made her way to Pompidou to tell him to be quiet. He seemed to listen to her now.

With bated breath she listened to the outside. She didn't hear any footsteps. She didn't hear any voices. Max kept the lights off though. And eventually the excitement wore out and her muscles ached and relaxed. Then her eyelids turned heavy and then closed while her breaths evened. Max fell asleep in the passenger seat of the RV, Pompidou laying down in the space between the seats with her hand slightly grazing his head.

* * *

Skyscrapers were often associated with people of power. In movies and comics, the guy with a lot of influence or money always sat in a penthouse loft or a large spacious office over looking the other buildings. Such was the case of Sean Prescott, CEO of Prescott Industries, one of the leading companies in the North West/Pacific coast.

Mr. Prescott sat in his large office, drinking a glass of bourbon while thinking about his position in life. To say he would change a thing would be a lie. His life was perfect- Wait. No. He would change something. He would stop that disappointing bastard of a son he had from soiling the Prescott name. Yes, he helped put Mark Jefferson in jail. But he also made the Prescott name associated with the pedophile, as Jefferson was currently classified as.

Of course, Sean Prescott is the one who put Jefferson there and he put Jefferson at Blackwell for a reason. One that was now ruined by his bratty bastard. It had taken years to get Jefferson trusted enough in the world to make him the most elusive killer in thirty years. And now all that work was obliterated by Sean's own son. Disgraceful!

In a bout of anger, Sean suddenly threw his glass of liquor to the wall opposite to his desk, from which he sat. The shatter of glass no doubt reached the secretary stationed just outside the door. And lo and behold, the young and ravenous secretary that Sean hired appeared in a crack in his double doors, asking if he was alright and if he needed anything.

"I'm fine," Sean said as he flattened his dirty blond hair back across his scalp. "Please, get someone to clean this up."

"Of course, Sir," she dutifully replied as she left.

Sean sighed. Why couldn't more people be like his secretary? She was impossibly sexy, smart in a common sense kind of way, and always ready to take orders. Actually, most people were like that. It was just that cursed town where he sent Jefferson that was the opposite.

Arcadia Bay was founded by the Indians. When the settlers reached the small Indian village, there was a long battle fought over who would control the area. The settlers won of course, but the Indians cursed the people to always fight against there self interests. The CEO of Prescott Ind. didn't believe in curses but he did believe in conditioning. Tell enough kids that story and they were bound to follow it on some kind of subconscious level. That was what's wrong with Arcadia. They were fighting what was best for them.

Sean believed with most of his heart that what he was doing, was the best for the small fishing community. If he happened to make a lot of money on the side, then wouldn't that be a jolly and welcome side effect. The plot developments he had planned were going to make Arcadia a town to grow up in. A town that will be more than a seasonal spot. It will roll in the dough all year long.

The older Prescott stood up and went to look out his large windows, overlooking most of Seattle. Seattle was a good place to keep shop but soon Arcadia Bay will be in the headlines. However, it infuriated Sean to no end that the people couldn't see what was good for them. With people like David Madsen and Michelle Grant deciding what was best for that school of theirs. 'Save the woods' and all that nonsense. Madsen might not have anything to do with that, but who did he think he was arresting the son of the man who gave him the money on his checks?

The whole town needed to be cleansed. People who shouldn't be there were and Sean needed them gone. That's what Jefferson was for.

But now that Jefferson was gone, Sean needed someone else to get rid of those... cockroaches. James Amber, David Madsen, Principal Raymond Wells, Michelle Grant, those were the ones causing the most trouble. Sean thought for a long while before walking away from his window and towards his desk. He pulled out one of the drawers and pushed up the false bottom with a pencil. Inside was a phone. He pulled it out and dialed a number.

 _"Hello?"_ A voice said on the line.

"This is Prescott," Sean said. "I have a job for you in Arcadia Bay."

 _"Again?"_ The voice asked. _"You know I couldn't find that other guy."_

"Yes," Sean said dryly. "I know. But this isn't about Ryan; he was smart to get out of Arcadia, unlike some people. No, this is about a new job. One that I will make worth your while."

* * *

 **End of Episode One.  
**


	5. Episode Two: Trial and Error Teaser

_"The trial for Mark Jefferson, notorious serial killer and photographer, is being held in Portland just after Thanksgiving."_

* * *

Blood soaked the floor, seeping into her shoes and painting her socks red.

* * *

"Now isn't this fun?" He asked as Max stared down the barrel.

* * *

The world stopped moving, her blurry hands flying to her head as she tried to scream out the pain.

* * *

Chloe dodged around him, moving with feline grace in a feral and primitive dance. All the while throwing caution to the wind as she read every move he was about to make as if they were English.

* * *

He fell as Rachel let go of his hand, eyes rolling into the back of his head as he whispered to his long dead sister- stuck in a memory with no return.

* * *

Golden lightning crackled off of Max's fingers as she held her arms stiffly at her sides.

"Get. The _fuck_. Out. Of. My. **HEAD**!"

* * *

The were connected, intertwined, when they kissed. Clothes were shed as they fell onto the creaky bed, blue and blonde hair flying.

* * *

Max cried out as a fiery pain erupted in her shoulder, knocking her balance off. Sending her into and out of the dorm's closed third story window, small pieces of glass following her down.

* * *

"So much power under those tiny fingertips," he chuckled quietly as he lovingly stroked the name he had carved into the stone where no one else would see: **MAX**. "You're going to be my **_masterpiece_**."

* * *

 _"It's said to be the trial of the decade, Jen- wait. Hold on... I've just been told their was an error in the trial."_


End file.
